Toyota now has its humanoid robots company, twins named Mirata and Kirobo.
Developed with Robo Garage Co. Ltd., The Japanese Space Agency, the University of Tokyo and RCSAT (Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology), these small machines with false air of toys (34 cm high and only 1 kg) are a combination of technologies. They can speak Japanese in particular through their voice recognition and speech synthesis capabilities, and thus communicate with people they are able to recognize.
If Mirata remain on Earth to test its qualities companion conversation with Japanese children, Kirobo take off on August 4 for the International Space Station (ISS). The 12 rigorous tests that he underwent will help to fulfill the first experience of conversation between man and robot in space.To do so, he will wait for the arrival of the Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata at the end of the year.
Fuminori Kataoka, who oversees the entire project at Toyota, think humans and robots coexist in the future and their interactions are crucial."We're trying to help create a society in which humans and robots coexist," he said.He states that "services interactive conversation evolve into systems that only give specific answers to specific questions (...) then we are working on a process of more natural language."
One can easily imagine that this experience will improve voice commands aboard the next model of the firm.
