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Humanoid Robot for Spacewalks

Posted by michael on from the send-a-robot-to-do-the-dirty-work dept.

Nils writes "Here is the web page of a research project at NASA JSC's Dexterous Robots Lab (DRL) to develop a humanoid robot for use in space. It is state-of-the-art with incredible hands, arms, torso, and stereoscopic vision for remote control. Very cool." We had a story on the Robonaut two years ago, but it looks like they've come a long way since then.

4 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Then why bother with astro-nuts? by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Then why bother with astro-nuts at all? The weight of that life-support system hurled into orbit would mean so much extra capability in orbit!

    In close earth orbit, the transmission lag time could stay tolerable; nothing proper training shouln't be able to fix. (The russians only used people with no driving experience to control their remote-controlled Lunokhod roving lunar probes, so they would not get hindered by earthly reflexes...)

    And ground tele-workers could work in shifts so the action would occur 24/4, instead of being shut down for several hours every day.

    The space shuttle is nothing but a tin-can jallopy to inflate the egoes of a picked few space/science-jocks.

  2. Re:Re-inventing the wheel again by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Honda have spent millions on research and development of their humanoid robot [honda.com] and nasa start from scratch again with what looks like an inferior product?

    Honda's robot is designed to be used on Earth. Weight isn't nearly as big a consideration for it. Neither is the need to be rad-hard, the need to tolerate micrometeorites, etc.

    NASA's robot was designed from the start to be used in space. It also was designed from the start to be tool-using - its hands are a lot more dextrous than those of Asimo, and the rest of the robot's design reflects this philosophy.

    i presume Honda's goals are similar to Nasa's in regards to putting robots in hostile enviroments

    Not according to Honda's Asimo page. Their robot was designed to be used in human dwellings, which meshes nicely with the "robotic servants" theme that shows up in a lot of Japanese pop culture. Completely different design criteria vs. NASA's applications (NASA wants something that can build/maintain fiddly bits of the space station without requiring a human to suit up and go outside the station).

    In summary, using Honda's design would not be a practical solution for NASA.

  3. robot soldiers by Jaez · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Is it me or does the illustration show it brandishing something that looks a lot like a gun?

    It's all well and good developing robots for civilian use, but what's to stop the mature version of this being given a gun and told to patrol government institutions. Or even fire on demonstrators? Something here just doesn't feel right...

  4. NASA already blew $288 million on this. by Animats · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The article doesn't mention the Flight Telerobotic Servicer, a $288 million NASA project to do this that ran from 1987 to the mid-1990s. This project was actually funded. Martin Marietta had a $297 million contract to develop one. Didn't work.

    NASA has a long-standing robotics program, but not a very successful one. It's embarassing, or ought to be.