Meet Int-Ball, ISS's latest robot member

The world is getting accustomed to the presence of smart robots in daily life scenario. We are moving to smart voice controlled home assistants in the form of Google Home and Amazon Echo. Dubai is getting its own robot cops for patrolling the streets. Embedded robots are driving cars on their own with little to no help from the driver. So, if the world is embracing these robots for making life easy and fun, what about those who reside outside the world?

To cater to them, a team from The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has sent a robot to the International Space Station (ISS), called Int-Ball. The robot’s mission is to capture live footage from the space station and send it back to the Tsukuba Space Center in Japan. It also becomes a great toy to pass time for the astronauts onboard the ISS.

The spherical robot is made out of 3D printed parts and utilises the same technology found on drones for flying around the earth’s atmosphere. The drone relays live footage and transmits it back to flight controllers as well as researchers on the ground. The robot is currently undergoing several tests before it can handle the crew’s photography tasks on its own. Int-Ball arrived on the space station on 4th of June and will carry on with the crew for a while.