Cimon: SpaceX, Airbus and IBM collaborate to produce a conversational space robot. -- AI Daily - Artificial Intelligence News

Cimon stands for Crew Interactive MObile companioN and is a reference to Simon Smith - the genius doctor known as the "flying brain" - from the science fiction story "Captain Future". Cimon is 3D printed and is just 32 centimetres in diameter - no bigger than a basketball and just 5kg in mass (0N in weight as space is a vacuum). Cimon was initially conceived by the DLR (German Space Agency) to help astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments in the Columbus Laboratory aboard the International Space Station. Developed by Airbus for the DLR, Cimon acts as a test bed to assess the potential feasibility of future intelligent robots in space - seeing whether they have the capability to simplify work life onboard the ISS. Cimon's'flying brain' was provided by IBM - its brain will be continuously updated over the air via IBM's Cloud, allowing Cimon to stay on the ISS for prolonged periods of time.