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General Motors' NASA Robot On Tour
diGitalRchitect writes "Robonaut 2, a.k.a. R2, described by its creator, General Motors, as the strongest, fastest, most dexterous and most technologically advanced humanoid robot visited GM's Warren Technical Center this morning in anticipation of its 'twin' heading off to the International Space Station later this month."
One presumes that you meant to say General Motors' (or General Motors's if you prefer) NASA Robot On Tour.
Unless there's a General Motor who's built a robot for NASA and is current touring, of course.
That link seems to go to a detroit redwings blog... the word robonaut isn't even on the page. http://www.freep.com/article/20101208/BUSINESS0101/101208039/1318/GM-robo-astronaut-visits-in-Warren
Fights.
Terminator stuff.
Made by the same company that brought us the Chevy Vega...
It would have been nice if just ONCE in the article it stated just exactly what these 'robonauts' will be doing on the ISS.
For all we know, the 'robonauts' will just stream music while playing an interactive game of Chess with the astronauts - not that there's anything wrong with that.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
R2’s DNA also could be used to improve robots currently working in manufacturing operations.
Now I understand why they name it robonaut: the Android, Nexus are some already taken trademarks, R2D2 not being humanoid... not too much of a choice range.
GM has partnered with NASA since the 1960s, when the auto giant made navigation systems for the Apollo missions. More recently, GM worked on the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
Whaa... You mean this Lunar Roving Vehicle? Yes, it ... somehow... is... more recent than 1960, but hey... common... it's still during nineteen-seventy-spring-time.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Robonaut 2, a.k.a. R2, is the younger brother of Destructobot 2, or D2.
A big part about being a humanoid is having 2 legs. Not sure how they can claim it as the most advanced humanoid robot when it's only half a humanoid.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Another small step towards the inevitable human-robot conflict ("THEY SENT MY BROTHER INTO SPACE!!! THOSE BASTARDS!!!")
Might be handy
Remember americans suffer from serious Not Invented Here syndrome. They'll either pretend the opposition doesn't exist or will try and make out their own inferior designs are better. Its something detroit has done since the 70s against japanese and then european cars. And look how well that turned out.
Care to explain why attempting to uphold high standards of spelling and grammar is "lame"?
In this instance the intended meaning was fairly obvious, but that's not always the case.
Don't give me that "Language evolves" crap either; yes it does, but 90% of the people who say that are simply using it as an excuse to be lazy with their grammar or spelling.
WTF... GM's working on projects like this... when they were about to go under and had to be bailed out by the government? Un-fucking-believable.
This kind of project is fine in a *healthy* company that's making enough money to fund itself... but why the hell didn't this get shut down under the bailout terms? How is this project making any money to help pay back the bailout? I always felt the bailout was a bad idea, and now we see crap like this. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the politicians who voted for the bailout have these robots at home, you know, otherwise known as... "campaign contributions".
im not laz... snore
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
Does it have On Star?
Proverbs 21:19
"strongest, fastest, most dexterous and most technologically advanced humanoid robot"!!! It almost sounds like it's an article from North Korea, or a 1970's Soviet claim about their great new Russian cars. The robot itself? A bit pathetic really.
Heh. Look how high his user number is. He probably wasn't alive 20 years ago. lol.
Government Motor's NASA Robot On Tour
There, I fixed that for ya!
Because this isn't a textbook, this is slashdot where things are typed fast and where the information is more important that complaining about trivial details of apostrophes.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1896936&cid=34452646
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
You may be right, but which "correct" spelling should be used on Slashdot then? English, american, scottish, australian, new zealand or only something which people like yourself approve of?
The Wall Street Journal has a video. It's pretty creepy the way they have the head turn to "look" at what the robot is doing with its fingers, etc. as if to imply self-awareness.
For some reason every time I see this robot I think of a taxi cab on mars. What movie was that anyway?
One presumes that you meant to say General Motors' (or General Motors's if you prefer) NASA Robot On Tour.
So, Robonaut is now credited to General Motors, and Robert Ambrose and the Robonaut
group at NASA Johnson Space Center don't even get a shout out anymore?
Maybe a link to their 2000 IEEE Intelligent Systems article?
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
"most technologically advanced" - err, by what standard? It doesn't even appear to have legs or be able to walk.
Um, what use would legs or the ability to walk be for a robot that is built for use the International Space Station, a facility that has neither gravity nor a planetary surface to walk on?
In any case, there are versions of Robonaut with planetary-surface mobility-- take a look at the Robonaut site; there's one on the front page: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/
It appears to be decades behind the stuff coming out of Japan.
Which space-qualified zero-gravity robot from Japan dating to "decades" back might you be referring to?
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
more important than complaining about trivial details like apostrophes.
FTFY
I RTFA,(naive mistake?). Typos are typos; but I find it uncomfortable that GM is withholding those who gave of their time, their moment of recognition. I believe that folks do good things, and should be recognised for it. I know there's a trend to humanise businesses, but businesses represent a group of people, and businesses appear to be above the law when it comes to issues like incarceration. So I ask myself, "who are the people that did this?"
From the article:
Robonaut 2, a.k.a. R2, described by its creator, General Motors, as the strongest, fastest, most dexterous and most technologically advanced humanoid robot
They didn't qualify their description with the term "space-qualified" as you have. And in not doing so they show that unique combination of boasting arrogance, stupidity, and incompetence that we Americans are so famous for around the world. Just once I would like to see an American press release that didn't totally overstate their case or outright lie. The Japanese don't have that problem, and yes, their robots are far more advanced than this POS GM legless "humanoid" robot. One of the most difficult parts of making a humanoid robot is the bipedal walk/controlled fall. ASIMO can even run. An amazing feat of engineering. As Americans we sure know how to love ourselves and think well of ourselves. We probably have the best "self esteem" in the world. Maybe if we stopped being so lazy and actually bothered to do some work we might even be worthy of our own high self-regard.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
They didn't qualify their description with the term "space-qualified" as you have.
Perhaps they didn't. Nevertheless, Robonaut is a space robot. Legs are not useful in a space robot.
This fact is all over the web, try a google search.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Possible automotive applications include adaptive lane-changing and adaptive cruise
How does being the "strongest/fastest/most dextrous" humanoid robot assist with such things vs a computer + servo on the automotive controls?
And wtf does this even mean:
“It allows us to do work and do it safely.side by side with astronauts or with workers here on Earth,”
TFA is confusing and very poorly written. It touts one thing, but then hints at completely different things.
-tm
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Still good for +4 Informative though. There's at least a contingent around here who love they're correct grammar.
Further more, that seems to be the only comment on this story that's been upmodded. Wtf people? Do you have nothing to talk about other than apostrophe use?
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Using the apostrophe incorrectly means something different. It's not pedantic adherence to "arbitrary rules", it's like interchanging metric and english units. They are not the same thing. Motors' and Motor's are different. Similarly, if I tell you to drive 40 kilometers down Route 66 to get to my house and pick up a heck for 75 dollars, you'd be pissed if I actually lived 40 miles down Route 99 and you were really getting 75 cents.
But then I'd say "Meh, precision is stupid and outdated and I was in a hurry. Writing what you mean is for old people who are stuck 20 years in the past. You should just know what I mean when I throw random words and characters on the screen." And everything would be cool, and I'd start calling every woman "Tammy".