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.

Comments

Re:Not Impressed

[H3XA]

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

Data

[LunarOne]

Cool! Star Trek's "Data" version 0.001 (alpha)

Re:It all comes down to...

[Kredal]

Too bad it's got a faulty motivator.... what about that R-2 unit?

Maybe I'm an ignorant dumbass but...

[The_Guv'na]

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.

Then why bother with astro-nuts?

[Pig Hogger]

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.

benefits on earth?

[dankelley]

Regardless of the significance for space research, there may be many earthly benefits to this NASA research on human-style robots.

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.

Re-inventing the wheel again

[sh0rtie]

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

Re:Re-inventing the wheel again

[Christopher Thomas]

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.

robot soldiers

[Jaez]

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...

NASA already blew $288 million on this.

[Animats]

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.