Slashdot Mirror
Humanoid Robot for Spacewalks
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.
6 million dollar (worth of surgery) man?
I wonder how long before NASA buys Abyss Creations (maker of RealDoll) so NASA can build useful "recreational" robots for those long trips to Mars.
- HeXa
Cool! Star Trek's "Data" version 0.001 (alpha)
Read my sig if you like, but I'll never see yours, thanks to Discussions, Viewing, Disable sigs...
Too bad it's got a faulty motivator.... what about that R-2 unit?
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
Wouldn't it make sense to have the robot designed to a form that's efficient and practical as possible? Sure, current EVA hardware is human-form oriented, but in the long run they will be replaced anyway.
Mine would have 8 arms, a beer cooler, joint roller [munchies make space food taste nicer!], and puncture repair kit.
Ph33r m3!!!
One wonders if the builders of this robot are Star Wars fans. The robot's head bears a striking resemblance to Jango Fett's helmet...
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.
I'm thinking of people with disabilities.
Since NASA is so well-funded and since it attracts such talented engineers, let's hope for spinoffs of research into mimicking human function will improve the quality of life for disabled individuals.
Honda have spent millions on research and development of their humanoid robot and nasa start from scratch again with what looks like an inferior product ?, Honda was at robonauts development status years ago , it seems a shame to ignore it and try to re-invent it, dont forget that they probably has more practical experience of robots in the commercial workplace than nasa do (car factories)
why dont they collaborate with people such as Honda instead of starting from scratch and wasting millions of dollars in the process ?
i presume Honda's goals are similar to Nasa's in regards to putting robots in hostile enviroments, i think its about time people took humanoid robots a bit more seriously than some do and start putting them to practical uses, sure there is the argument that they are not suited to those enviroments but hey we havent done to bad with 10 fingers 2 hands,legs and a torso and these research groups would probably agree.
if people talked to each other more on this planet maybe we would get somewhere
Is this the same robot that derived it's inspiration from Leonardo DaVinci's mechanical knight notes and studies of the kinetics of the human body?
--The more you know, the less you know.
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...
look like the Fett;
but moreover -- if they are going for "life-like", the really need to implement moveable "eyes" (cameras) instead of having the head do all the moving. it mould make the head go through much extaneous range of movements, while still not have the flexibility of a human head / eye system. (bend head one way to avoid, say, a beam, while still be able to look to your left side.)
otherwise very cool -- even if it's just half-a-robot. but even if mounted on a cart i bet i can program it to clean my room.
hmm... wait a sec; i can't even clean my room.
My life in the land of the rising sun.
I would infer that they plan to have (or at least want the option to have) these remotely controlled by an operator in some sort of "waldo" suit. Thus it makes sense to have the same basic configuration as your operator.
-- MarkusQ
a robot that does the moonwalk?
I would infer that they plan to have (or at least want the option to have) these remotely controlled by an operator in some sort of "waldo" suit. Thus it makes sense to have the same basic configuration as your operator.
Besides which, if it is a critical (eg life supporting) part that needs repaired, and the robot breaks down, it is nice to have the option of suiting up and going outside yourself to fix it. By designing the robots to be humanlike, and the space station to be servicable by said robots, you have built in redundancy in terms of deployment options (human v. robot) if things go awry.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
"We had a story on the Robonaut two years ago, 16 months ago, 14 months ago, 12 months ago, 10 months ago, 9 months ago, 7 months ago, 6 months ago, 5 months ago, 2 months ago, 2 weeks ago, 4 days ago, and yesterday, but it looks like they've come a long way since then. "
NASA has a long-standing robotics program, but not a very successful one. It's embarassing, or ought to be.
When I was working for a company that produced custom industrial robots I dealt with a similar situation on one of my first projects.
Basically, all the machine had to do was measure and cut wire. That's a pretty simple task, and the whole thing could have been finished in a week for a few thousand dollars. For some reason, though, the customer insisted that instead of using easily replaced, sensible cutting blades designed specifically for the machine, it had to use the custom made, diagonal cutters their assemblers were using to cut the stuff by hand. The reason being that the diagonal cutters were of a special material required for the job (a medical application). Of course, we could have easily made machine blades out of the same material for about 1/20 of the cost, but the customer insisted...
The end result: the machine took almost 2 months to complete and cost almost $15,000, it requires constant re-calibration because the cutters move a tiny bit with each cut, and it takes nearly an hour to change and align the cutters when they dull. (The design we proposed would have cut that time down to a few minutes)
Designing a machine to use tools designed for a human is always a bad idea. No matter how much you have invested in those tools, redesigning them to be used by a machine will always be cheaper.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
A new set of articulating eyes has been built for Robonaut. The pointing system directs two pairs of eyes, independently verging them for tracking humans and objects. Each pair includes a large camera with computer controlled zoom, focus and iris adjustments, as well as a smaller camera to provide peripheral vision. The system has been assembled, and integrated with the brainstem for pointing control and calibration. The next step will be integration with the visual cortex, and then insertion of the system into the robot's helmet, replacing the old cameras.
Please....Read the artical first
Already did.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
How about a robot that does The Robot?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!