Humanoid Rashmi may travel space, soon: Report
New Delhi : The chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation’s ( ISRO), K Sivan revealed that the agency's first unmanned mission to space will have a humanoid. Sources confirmed that ISRO has approached Ranchi-based engineer Ranjeet Srivastava, who has developed the world’s first multilingual social humanoid, Rashmi, to be used for space mission, Gaganyaan in 2022.
Lately, two ISRO scientists, Tirtha Pratim Das and Raghu N, hadmet Srivastava and Rashmi in Ranchi with a list of questions and asked Srivastava to develop the existing robot with certain simulated features resembling human physiology. The scientists seems satisfied with humanoid Rashmi and while leaving they said the final decision would be taken at ISRO headquarters in Bangalore.
It's worth mentioning that a humanoid is a robot that looks and acts like a human, just like the 'Chitti' of Robot and 'Nila' of 2.0 movie. According to ISRO, humanoids will be sent to space on two occasions before the agency sends humans by 2022.
Speaking about the interaction with ISRO scientists, Srivastava said Rashmi answered some of the questions asked by them during the interview. “It was a four-hour long interaction where I demonstrated the capabilities of Rashmi,” Srivastava said.
The scientists recorded various technical aspects and specifications of the robot, including its power consumption pattern, battery backup, possibility of extending the battery life, data recording capabilities among others.
Srivastava said ISRO wants the humanoid to simulate various physiological activities like respiration, blood circulation system, incorporation of blood pressure monitoring mechanism etc. “I have been working on integrating a cooling system in a way so that warm air comes out of her nostrils and the machine inside gets cooled.
Meanwhile, Das abstained from talking to the media, he informed Srivastava that sending a humanoid to space would precede manned mission to space. “Rashmi was able to convince the scientist that she is close to humans in emotional quotient and could communicate with facial expressions whereas I am convinced that she can simulated with some of the physiological features resembling human soon,” he said.
