Russia’s first humanoid robot nicknamed FEDOR has said he wants to see colonies of his fellow robots throughout the solar system so they can aid in space exploration.
FEDOR recently embarked on his first voyage to space, spending 12 days onboard the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to Earth on Sept. 7. After the voyage, which was marked with technical difficulties, the robot’s developers said they would be retiring him, saying "he fulfilled his mission."
“To conquer the planets of the solar system, colonies of robotic avatars must be created,” the life-size robot tweeted Wednesday.
According to FEDOR, robots will someday be able to maintain space stations throughout the solar system without needing humans’ help. He posted an illustration of a robot standing on a moon-like surface with four tires rather than two legs.
During FEDOR's trip to the ISS, it was discovered that the robot’s tall, long legs aren’t well-equipped to life in space. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, has said that next-generation FEDOR models will be designed without legs, gradually losing their resemblance to humans.
What future FEDORs lack in human-like appearance will be made up for with artificial intelligence, ensuring their status as an anthropomorphic robot, Rogozin said. He added that Roscosmos is developing the FEDOR (Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research) robot for future moon exploration trips.
Due to signal transmission delays between Earth and the moon, the robot will need to be equipped with artificial intelligence to operate itself during lunar voyages, he said.
