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NASA Selects Universities To Develop Humanoid Robot Astronauts (examiner.com)

Posted by timothy on from the not-sexbots-this-time-ok dept.

MarkWhittington writes: NASA announced that it is sending copies of its R5 Valkyrie humanoid robot to two universities for software upgrades and other research and development. The effort is part of a continuing project to develop cybernetic astronauts that will assist human astronauts in exploring other worlds. The idea is that robot astronauts would initially scout potentially hazardous environments, say on Mars, and then actively collaborate with their human counterparts in exploration. NASA is paying each university chosen $250,000 per year for two years to perform the R&D. The university researchers will have access to NASA expertise and facilities to perform the upgrades. Spoiler alert: the robots are both going to Greater Boston, to teams at MIT and Northeastern University respectively.

5 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. DUPE by OzPeter · · Score: 2

    And it's still on the front page

    MIT Helping NASA Build Valkyrie Robots For Space Missions

    More proof that the "you are all cows" guy is referring to the editors

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  2. Why humanoid? by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 2

    Ok, I get the robot part. Makes enough sense to me and doesn't require explanation. But why humanoid? So the astronauts will have an illusion of more humans to interact with? Because they want the robot to perform tasks on machines that are only capable of accommodating the human form? Because it makes better PR than a more outlandish but perhaps more sensible quadruped approach? Some sort of official response to that question seems like it would have been a no-brainer for the articles.

    1. Re:Why humanoid? by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Forget quadruped, what exactly do legs bring to the equation? Humans use tons of robots to do a vast range of industrial tasks, but they're not legged - if they need to be able to move freely, they're on wheels or tracks. And their bodies are generally just one or more big arms with various gripping or tool elements as "fingers".

      Why legs? So it can fall over?

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    2. Re:Why humanoid? by Lodlaiden · · Score: 2

      Why not just send Big Dog? That thing looked like it could run across all Mars and over any terrain without a problem.

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    3. Re:Why humanoid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because being able to step over eight inch high rocks is a Feature in an exploratory robot.