NASA is considering robots to do some of its work needed at the International Space Station (ISS). The University of Bremen hand in hand with the German Research Center for AI has developed a female humanoid named AILA to do some of their space work.
There are many things that are needed to be done on the ISS. If a robot could be employed to take care some of the routine work needed at the space station, astronauts could take a little quality time for themselves or maybe help a colleague from operating a task meant for two operators.
Daily tasks of astronauts in the space station include at least 2 hours of exercise as to prevent bone density and muscle loss to help them in their physical activities, space walks outside the ISS, and some routine maintenance aboard the space station. Also, there are science experiments and daily research aboard the ISS that are needed to be supervised.
The BesMan AILA robot is designed by the University of Bremen and the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence in hopes of one day assisting the astronauts in space. AILA is designed to perform procedures that involve its arms. It is also equipped with human-like set of hands and fingers for manipulation purposes. The robot's mobility is based on its wheeled platform, tested fine in earth-based simulations, but doubtful in space locomotion as it has not been simulated in zero gravity.
AILA is under development to have human-like behaviours and cognition. This will be programmed to the robot using its imitation and reinforcement learning techniques. With its own AI, the robot can copy and imitate what the operator would teach it.
Other than AILA's movements on the ISS, the robot is accompanied by an embedded domain specific language software which makes it recognize other languages like Russian or French. The eDSL program has been designed so that the robot can also be manipulated by astronauts using other languages.
