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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.
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.