robonaut

Robots in Space: Robonaut 2 Blasts Off to the International Space Station

by Socrates
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Yesterday afternoon at 4:53 pm EST space shuttle Discovery blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Safely packed in the cargo bay aboard mission STS-133 was a new kind of a crew member – the Robonaut 2. The Robonaut 2 is the second generation of a humanoid robot developed by NASA, GM and DARPA for space exploration. It is modular in nature, which allows for new parts and upgrades to be shipped and attached at a later point, and is intended to participate and assist in both manned and unmanned space missions, via telepresence and various levels of robotic autonomy for control. The robot is very dexterous and, while not all human range of motion and sensitivity has been duplicated, its hand has impressive 12 degrees of freedom of movement as well as 2 degrees of [...]

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NASA and GM Develop Robonaut 2

by Socrates
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The Robonaut is a robotic astronaut first developed about 10 years ago by DARPA and NASA with the goal of assisting human space exploration or, ultimately, conducting non-human space exploration altogether.  Though the original version never actually made it into space it seems that version 2.0 is being developed by NASA and GM. The new Robonaut R2 is more dexterous, stronger, smarter, faster and more efficient. It is supposed to automate tasks that are dangerous, dull, repetitive or otherwise challenging for human astronauts. One such task, for example, is space walking which requires long and tedious pre- and post-space-walk procedures for all human astronauts. Robots can potentially cut out operation time, minimize risk and even improve the quality of the work carried out during the space-walk missions.   the Original Robonaut Video   the new R2 Humanoid Robonaut Video   [...]

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