Robotic Astronaut (a.ka. Robonaut) 2

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NASA and GM Take a Giant Leap Forward in Robotics

"We envision this kind of technology to be able to be used right around humans. Both NASA and GM share this vision of humans and robots working together," Linn said.

NASA would like to see a robot in space, with enough dexterity to handle pliable insulation and other materials too tricky for the cranes and robotic arms available on the space station today.

"This is a human-scale robot. It works at human speeds. We're working closer and closer to the human form, and that's a difficult challenge," Ron Diftler, who oversees the Robonaut project for NASA, said.

"We are foreseeing this as an EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk) assistant," Diftler said.

For example, the droid could save time and reduce risks to spacewalking astronauts by going outside first to prepare work sites.

The Robonauts, which were unveiled on February 4, are based on work NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency did a decade ago. (ANI)

So here it is.
If you notice a strange looking being working alongside astronaut crews it will probably be Roobonaut2.
I hope they give them nicknames too.

[edit on 5-2-2010 by spacebot]

S+F

"no more job for human" ... good or bad thing ?

I say it one more time : you have to choose now. Being adult is the capacity to say no to our libido : A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. (thoreau)

"Humanity" ( you ) have to choose the future :
* in one future : with robot and other technology : the question is what human being will have to do ( or not ), in their life : be carrefull understanding the consequences for "human society" ( and human emotion, relationships, etc ).

My question is why this is taking so long? I have a book that was published in 1999 about robots and Robonaut was one of the droids they covered. In the book (and on NASA's web site) it says that Robonaut was made to help with construction of ISS. Well ISS is almost finished, and robonaut is nowhere in sight. Even with R2 they still don't have any firm plans for this thing.

I keep hearing on one of the 24 hour News stations that the window on the new module (straight out of the DEATH STAR) will be used to help control robots outside the station. Are they talking about R2? or just the canadian built "robot" arms.

What are the real improvements here? I read in another article that R2 is faster, stronger and has more joints in it's thumb. That's it? It took more than 10 years to add an extra gear in the thumb?

Sorry to be so negative. I think Robonaut is super cool, and could be a big help in our exploration of the system, but what are they waiting for? Will R2 ever go to space? Or is this just something for us to be wowed by in the present, but in the long term nothing really ever happens.

How long till something like this goes to space? The Moon? Mars? Another decade? half a century? Longer? Are they secretly already using this in a black space project while the public settels for dreams that never arrive?

And what about that goofy helmet? The old helmet was way cooler. You know the one that made Robonaut look like Boba Fett.

Trying to balance my perversion of being half a skeptic half a "believer" (I don't really like that term, I would prefer the one "out of the box thinker") LOL I was getting an itch to try and visualize NASA robotic projects vs known and famous Alien robotic creatures sightings, like this for ex. www.abovetopsecret.com...
which btw if someone pays close attention and tries to visualize the faces it might get a very familiar sight. They might look exactly like whatever models used to represent at least artistically the Face on Mars. If someone can find that specific movie, if anybody knows what I'm talking about i would be thankful, but this is not a material for this one thread or rather the topic. It can be posted on the other thread about the original sighting.
Now imagine first public alien contact in space to be something like two robots talking to each other, I wouldn't be very surprised! LOL

The robotic approach, mainly the humanoid form is something that should have been a priority for any space agency. It both conveys our physical form, although no matter how much this design philosophy might be limiting in abilities, it gives us as a chance to widely practice at anything the human body would be subjected to in space exploration.
Maybe robots themselves are not the only answer and there might be instances where simply you wouldn't be able to use anything else than the human body and mind itself.

While reading about alien robotic contact cases, and observing news about how cutting edge robotics advance in space, I somehow get an eerie feeling that we are close to some kind of a singularity ourselves.
Maybe aliens are not so much advanced as we initially thought, at least some of them, or WE are not so much inferior as it is usually perceived. Although it really is taking too long, I just hope that somehow a big future advancement is closing near.

Anyway I posted this reply because I found the main NASA page about Robonaut 2 and I think they had updated it a bit after the initial news that appear on the web.
robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov...

[edit on 20-2-2010 by spacebot]

reply to post by psychederic


"the question is what human being will have to do ( or not ), in their life"

There is only one thing. Use our brain. We may not make it, or we may do but not in an ideal manner. As long as we still survive as a species to see another day, the chances are there. Everything is there. It only takes the right synapses to fire up, the right timing and the right connection with everything else and all the others, for something to be born/created.
Sometime we might make it right. Eventually.

[edit on 20-2-2010 by spacebot]

Humanoid robot goes up to the ISS in September

A humanoid robot is going to be sent into space to aid the astronauts on the ISS, a spokesman for NASA said. Known as Robonaut 2, it will go up to the ISS in September aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. A 136-kg two-armed robot, which resembles a human, can use the same tools as astronauts

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1467617f242b.jpg[/atsimg]

Good post. I just saw this update today and thought I would update your thread instead of a new one etc. Very interesting I would say.

I have located secret documents which show a prototype of the robonaut. www.retrotin.com...
reply to post by spacebot

Is this 'robot' independantly A.I. controlled, or just an elaborate remote-controlled (via console) device?

I'm surprised that NASA wants to be associated with sophisticated technology, such as a humanoid robot.


[edit on 4/16/2010 by Larryman]

My grandmother would think, how much of food can she buy for its cost.
Then, i think, she would give most of that food to the hungry people.
Hail to modern men, we all won't have job soon.
I heard, that sheeps eat grass.

Let's oink, alltogether.
upd: ahh i forgot, something for you:
www.youtube.com...

Is this 'robot' independantly A.I. controlled, or just an elaborate remote-controlled (via console) device?

I am laughing SO HARD now, dude..

[edit on 16-4-2010 by potential_problem]