Robot astronaut to robot girlfriend: Kibo project points to future of artificial companions

The first ever robot astronaut has finished an 18-month stint on board the International Space Station (ISS) and has now returned to Earth for a new mission: to keep people company. "The project itself is a sort of giant project," Yorichika Nishijima, a senior robotics designer at Dentsu, told IBTimes UK. The Kibo Robot Project originally formed from a collaboration between the University of Tokyo, Toyota, Robo Garage and Dentsu. As a result, two identical humanoid robots - Kirobo and