This robot is helping astronauts on the space station with tasks, stress and isolation | Space + Science - CNN

Ashley Strickland, space and science writer for CNN notes, Along for the ride with the astronauts on the International Space Station is a bit of a talking head called CIMON-2.

 

This robot will help astronauts feel less lonely

Designed to interact with the astronauts, the ball-shaped robot is helping them manage tasks, stress and the isolation of living more than 200 miles above their home planet.

 

Isolation is something many people are dealing with on Earth due to the pandemic. The project leads for the CIMON project think that lessons learned in space during this experiment could be applied on Earth.

 

"While in space, CIMON provides a possible basis for social assistance systems, which could reduce stress caused by isolation or group dynamic interactions during long-term missions, for example, to the moon or Mars, not dissimilar to situations on Earth," Matthias Biniok, IBM project lead for CIMON in Germany, said in an email...

 

"CIMON is a technology experiment to find out how virtual agents can support astronauts and increase the efficiency of their work," Biniok said. " Another important topic is research on isolation and loneliness and the effects of stress on the physical body and how virtual assistants can help astronauts cope with these problems."

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Source: CNN