While many people in the US and UK are worrying about the possibility of a robot uprising, our friends in Japan are doing all they can to make it happen. Next year Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata, will be spending time on the International Space Station. With him will go his mission sidekick, Kibo, a humanoid robot designed to provide companionship and help with scientific experiments. Amongst his abilities will be face recognition, allowing him to converse with his fellow astronauts.

Kibo will only be 13 inches tall, and he won’t have the piloting skills of Robert the Robot from XL5. Hopefully he won’t have the personality of C3PO either. But it is a start. And we all know how it ends, don’t we.