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Robonaut "B" Getting Ready for Space

Posted by timothy on from the putting-on-its-robotic-clothing dept.

mykepredko writes "CNN has more about Robonaut B, which is an updated version of the original Robonaut including mobility using a modified Segway or a 'Space Leg' which allows it to use handholds on the ISS. I was expecting to see that it was being primarily developed for Hubble, but it should also be very useful for the ISS, allowing astronauts to stay inside when construction resumes."

19 comments

  1. A more economic solution can be found in ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    India.

  2. So even when the humans are in space by QuantumG · · Score: 0

    They have rovers to do the actual space work, and the rover isn't automated. Wow, what a fantastic waste of money.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
    1. Re:So even when the humans are in space by flewp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's much safer for the astronauts to be inside instead of outside the station. Would you be happy if it were autonomous? Because really, the first step I would think is to make something that works first, even if it needs outside input, before making it completely autonomous.

      --
      WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
    2. Re:So even when the humans are in space by QuantumG · · Score: 2, Interesting

      it is also much safer for the astronauts to be at home. Hardly makes sense putting a robot up there for them to remote control when they could remote control it from earth. I think the idea of space habitation is to make it safe for humans to live and work in space, and that means making space suits that are safe and light weight enough to allow astronauts to get outside and do the job. This robot is just a step backwards from the goal (and a step towards sending the astronauts home).

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    3. Re:So even when the humans are in space by flewp · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You do realise that the astronauts are up there for other reasons too, right? It's not like they're up there solely to maintain the robot.

      I think the idea of space habitation is to make it safe for humans to live and work in space, and that means making space suits that are safe and light weight enough to allow astronauts to get outside and do the job. This robot is just a step backwards from the goal (and a step towards sending the astronauts home).

      It's not a step backwards. Keep in mind, astronauts were able to fix the Hubble in their current suits. They'll still be working on safer, lighter, more manuverable suits too. It's not like they're just going to give up on that, especially with the for manned Moon and Mars missions. If anything, it's in the right direction for autonomous robots. There will also be a place for robots and there will always be a place for humans. We need to work on both techonologies.

      So what exactly do you want? Completely autonomous robots or completely safe spacesuits? We simply don't have the technology for either. It's space. It's dangerous. I don't think any kind of spacesuit in the next 25 years could survive a random debris collision of something even as small as a fingernail at those kind of speeds. That's where robots come into play. If it can be done without a human, all the better. That's not to say that rovers and robots should completely replace humans for space exploration, as we still need to the human element to connect with.

      --
      WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
    4. Re:So even when the humans are in space by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      it is also much safer for the astronauts to be at home. Hardly makes sense putting a robot up there for them to remote control when they could remote control it from earth.

      Latency is a big problem when remote-controlling from Earth. If the controlled robot is directly above the control station, latency is low. Anywhere else, and you have to route the signal up to half way around the planet before it reaches the station. You either get high latency, short control windows, or both.

      Having astronauts in the station controlling a robot outside it is a far nicer situation, if you want anything done quickly or if you want to be able to respond to quickly-changing situations.

    5. Re:So even when the humans are in space by freqres · · Score: 1

      Well, the article description says it all. The human jobs are being outsourced to robots.

      but it should also be very useful for the ISS, allowing astronauts to stay inside when construction resumes.

      I read this as the astronauts stay inside the space station and work at constructing their resumes. ;)

      --
      Rampant Ninja related crimes these days...Whitehouse is not the exception
    6. Re:So even when the humans are in space by fain0v · · Score: 1

      I wonder what the robots ping time is?

    7. Re:So even when the humans are in space by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 2, Informative

      I wonder what the robots ping time is?

      Round-trip latency for a robot on the opposite side of the planet is about 0.13 seconds. This doesn't sound like much, and would still let you get most things accomplished, but as anyone who's played a first-person shooter with a ping of 130 ms can tell you, it won't be fun, and will involve moving much more slowly and carefully than you otherwise could have for detail work :).

      Round-trip latency for a robot directly above you in low earth orbit is about 2 ms.

      If this is designed using more or less conventional hardware and is intended to be controlled in real time by a human teleoperator, I'd put its system lag at around 10-20 ms, but these assumptions are wild guesses, so its actual system response time could be just about anything.

  3. Boba Fett? by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 3, Informative
    Looks like the engineers are big Boba Fett fans. Here and Here

    Also the vision system looks really cool with some pics and a quote:

    "Using a sophisticated measurement constraint system, which employs knowledge of human kinematics, the stereo vision system is now able to track the 3D location of a person's hands relative to their head location."

    1. Re:Boba Fett? by gingerTabs · · Score: 1

      I'll be more impressed when a robot can tell it's arse from its elbow

  4. This will help with the orbital wobble they saw. by ToshiroOC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Earlier, when the astronauts were doing spacewalks with the Russian suits, the whole spacestation started wobbling and bucking around enough to activate the thrusters that keep it in orbit (though they had been disabled for fear that one would hit an astronaut). As it turned out, the Russian suits vent excess air with about 1N of force, enough to cause the station to ripple noticably over long spacewalks. Using a robot for construction will allow the astronauts to stay inside and avoid causing further wobble with the suits, not to mention reduce the risk involved in sending an astronaut outside (or for some construction projects, both astronauts, leaving the ISS unmanned inside).

  5. Re:This will help with the orbital wobble they saw by M1FCJ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is quite common with spacecraft. When (oh wonderful, purely American-made and mother of all space stations, enough sarcasm) SkyLab was used, the crew reported problems especially when one of the astronauts moved or jumped around during the Apollo Space Telescope work which ruined the observations. Oh well, AST was a white elephant in any case. Go all the way there to observe what? Sun. Easiest thing to observe from ground...

  6. Dextre for Hubble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    The "Can a Robot Save Hubble?" NYT article seems to indicate Dextra is currently the leading candidate for the Hubble mission.

    One part of the mission I don't understand, however:

    When the repair mission is complete, the part of the service craft containing the old instruments and the robot would detach from Hubble and burn up in the atmosphere, leaving the new propulsion unit on the telescope to maintain it in its 275-mile-high orbit until ready to bring it down. [emphasis added]

    Why throw away the robot? Why not leave it up there so it is available for future servicing missions? If something goes wrong, it can then be used immediately, or if new parts or batteries are needed, only the parts or batteries need to be spacelifted.
    1. Re:Dextre for Hubble by Glytch · · Score: 1

      My guess would be that there are no safe ways of leaving it with the telescope. I'm just guessing here, all I know about orbital mechanics I learned from watching "Planetes".

      I doubt it could be attached to the telescope, as that would add a significant off-center weight that the attitude control system might not be able to handle. And that's assuming that there are any strong enough points to physically hook up to, anyway.

      A tether would be a nightmare during telescope maneuvers, as the robot would need to move with inhuman, zero-lag-time precision to avoid smashing into the telescope. It would also need to carry a lot of fuel for those maneuvers. Same goes for leaving the robot untethered but close by.

      If left far away from the telescope, the orbits of the robot and telescope would probably drift so far apart as to make the whole idea pointless.

      Like I said, I'm no engineer. But those are my guesses.

  7. When construction resumes... by Zebra_X · · Score: 1

    And that would be...?

    1. Re:When construction resumes... by applemasker · · Score: 1
      Exact date? Best guestimate is that Discovery gets the nod in March 2005.

      NASA has started providing semi-regular updates as to Shuttle Status again.

      --
      Bush Lies On the Record.