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NASA Developing Space Droids
krez writes: "NASA is developing neat little space-droids to help astronauts in space with their chores. According to the article, these things fly, talk, and 'think.' I dunno about you, but if I could get one to vacuum my apartment I'd be a happy dude." If NASA would sell these as toys (modified for earth gravity, with lots of LEDs), maybe their funding problems would disappear.
Astronaut: Open the pod bay doors.
'Thinking' space droid: I can't do that, Dave.
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this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
Too bad you guys already reported this. Almost a year ago... http://slashdot.org/articles/99/09/09/159255.shtml
I knew that looked familiar.
Slashdot scoops themselves again! By almost a year this time.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Let the wookie win!!!
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Okay, I assumed that this is the same story that came out about 18 months ago, with the little flying-on-compressed-air red spherical thingies that resemble the doohickey shooting Luke Skywalker in the leg while he was practicing blindfolded, so I didn't read the article yet.
BUT... about the editor's comment...
Modified for Earth gravity? A little bit of air pressure will get the driod moving in zerogee. Do you have any idea how much air pressure we're talking about in order to sustain a relatively heavy object in a 1 gee field? Hovering? On air pressure? You'd be able to hear the fan a mile away! The air coming out the bottom of your SonyFlyingDroid would blow a hole in the floor!
Still, I'd buy one. :-)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
And if crew members have a question, they can simply ask. The PSA will have advanced voice-recognition and intent-interpretation technologies that will allow it to understand spoken questions and commands.
It's powered by Ask Jeeves!
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
"Ames researchers are using off-the-shelf parts to help keep costs down. The robot's computer is a Pentium® III running Linux..."
At least Microsoft hasn't managed to convince NASA that they should not use Linux...
So NASA is going to design astromech droids?
I assume they'll be able to replay holographic messages.
--Ty
Then again, maybe not.
---- SIGFPE
I submitted a CNN article about these same NASA robots over a year ago, only to get it rejected. Oh well, better late than never. Strangely the CNN article has a lot more information than Nasa's own page. It even talks about how several of these bots could work together as a team.
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All communication to and from ISS, Shuttles, Hubble, and a number of other NASA vehicles is routed through the TDRS system of three massive satellites in geosynchornous orbit. Unlike the Russian system, Nasa doesn't have to wait for their missions to pass over their ground stations. The lag incurred by TDRS is identical to that you hear on a transoceanic telephone call.
>2) Repair. Can't fix the bot from the ground. You will have to train the crew to fix the bot (which you would have to do anyway).
I would imagine that a shuttle would bring up a half-dozen balls. This would allow you to bring several of them online during busy times. It would also allow you to discard ones that break (to be replaced by the next shuttle flight). After all, the goal is to relieve the astronauts of work, not burden them with more things to fix.
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The wonderful thing about a droid living on ISS is that it can have the full intelligence of a human. Give some grunt in mission control a pair of joysticks, and a TV screen, and you've instantly got an extra crew member who is quite capable of taking inventories, inspecting hardware and even making the odd observations out a window.
When you are dealling with high-priced space missions like ISS, you don't need to program sophisticated AI. By using a real human being you get a really useful robot, not an annoying critter with the intelligence of a brain-damaged roach.
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Well, you could test this by dropping it from a tall height, ensuring that you have enough cushioning at the bottom to catch it without breaking.
Instead of allowing people like Tito to pay $20 million to do ISS chores for a week, they're spending millions developing a robot to do those chores? No wonder NASA keeps running out of money.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
They already sent a tool up there. His name was Dennis Tito.
The propulsion mechanism seems highly dependent on a zero-G environment. It must be tough to do earthbound testing of such a device. Of course, the article was short on details.
on Slashdot there was an article on how NASA has gone way over budget. Perhaps if the astronauts did their own "chores"...
And for those of you who remember Tito's comments about his trip to the ISS, they sure need it. According to him (and others), the astronaughts spend a great deal of time with mundane tasks. Any slack a droid can pick up is a little more time the scientists can study science and make life more comportable for the early pioneers of living in space. Of course, alot of non-mission related work was probably expected by Nasa in the early years of the project for trying to make the whole thing work. Perhaps later more science will take place. Any tool Nasa can provide to speed along this process I am sure will be appreciated by the people who live up there.
I agree with the author's comments too. There are probably enough people who would want to pick this up that Nasa could make a little loose change. Not a bad idea...hope Nasa was listening.
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
if NASA would sell these as toys...
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
You're in luck. I thought of R2D2 right on the spot. AI, work-friendly... a droid of all the right qualities. Plus, he LOOKS like a vaccuum cleaner. Let's stop before we start making bitchy C3POs tho, ok?
Screw 3...
I question how well an AI would function with these things. I'm sure the calm, zero gravity environment of the ISS is more ideal for practical autonomous robots, but it still seems like several years of work before they could do anything useful.
On the other hand, stick a person on the other end and it might be all kinds of useful. I'm sure the engineers on the ground would love to be able to check things out themselves by remote rather than bother the residents. It'd be so easy to adapt for this purpose, I'd be surprised if this didn't wind up to be their function.
they're "stress relief toys".. Ever see Cherry 2000? hey, astronauts have needs too...