- Russia’s humanoid robot Fedor (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) has reached International Space Station. It is Russia’s first robot in space.
- Fedor stands 180 cm tall and weighs 160 kg. It copies human movements. It can be operated manually by ISS astronauts wearing robotic exoskeleton suits to perform high risk tasks.
- Fedor will help with high-risk tasks at the ISIS until September 7. Later, Fedor could help in tests on Russia’s new manned transport ship under development called the Federatsiya.
- In 2011, NASA sent up Robonaut 2, a humanoid developed with General Motors that had an aim of working in high-risk environments. In 2013, Japan sent up a robot called Kirobo, developed with Toyota. It was able to hold conversations in Japanese.
- The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies namely NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (European Union) and CSA (Canada).