NASA’s humans-in-space program may be on hiatus following dramatic recent budget cuts, but the agency’s robots-in-space program is alive and well.
In conjunction with manufacturing partner General Motors, the space agency has unveiled the latest generation robotic astronaut, dubbed Robonaut 2. NASA says that the robot is designed to work side by side with people; its leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions.
“This cutting-edge robotics technology holds great promise, not only for NASA, but also for the nation,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “I’m very excited about the new opportunities for human and robotic exploration these versatile robots provide across a wide range of applications.”
NASA points out that the first generation of the robot was built by the software, robotics and simulation division at Johnson in a collaborative effort with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) 10 years ago. That generation was designed to be controlled by astronauts inside the International Space Station using a virtual reality interface: helmets and gloves wired to record their motions and immediately transfer those intentions and actions to robots outside the station.
Robonaut B, the second generation model unveiled in 2004, was built with human-like hands and television camera eyes, and gained the option of rolling around Earth on a modified two-wheeled Segway scooter or grappling the International Space Station (ISS) with what researchers call a “space leg.”
“We’re looking at other lower bodies for the moon, with a four-wheel or six-wheel base,” Robert Ambrose, Robonaut project lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston,Texas told SPACE.com in 2004. “We’re not going to take a Segway to the moon, but it’s a good way to emulate the idea on Earth.”
NASA and GM, with the help of engineers from Houston’s Oceaneering Space Systems, developed and built R2, the latest generation of the androids. It’s faster, more dexterous and more technologically advanced than the first generation creations.
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“When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneuron (sic), moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence,” explains the English-language section of the Cyberdyne Web site. “At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. ‘HAL’ catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer.”
Cyberdyne says the HAL-5 model weighs about 50 pounds, though it supports its own weight, and increases the wearer’s strength up to 10-fold. It runs on battery power and can go nearly 3 hours before needing a recharge.
The U.S. military has been trying to develop robotic exoskeletons for decades to help soldiers carry heavy loads or move at high speeds.
But at a suggested retail price of about $4,000 (for Japanese residents only, and not yet available), the HAL “robot suit” may be the first aimed at civilians.
Cool. Get that working with rocket boosters and I’ll one day be one bad octogenarian. I got your bingo right here!
NASA engineers will be holding their breaths Sunday, as a digging robot attempts a precarious landing on Mars’ surface.
NASA’s Phoenix Lander was launched in August and has traveled 122 million miles to Mars. It is a $457 million robotic spacecraft — equipped with a backhoe, cameras and a compact chemistry lab — that will attempt to find out whether the cold, forbidding surface of Mars could once have been warm enough for microbial life to exist on the planet.
Phoenix is scheduled to land Sunday evening at 7:38 p.m. ET. It must first separate from its rocket and then survive a harrowing seven-minute descent at 12,600 mph. It will then slow down to 5 mph to land in one piece on the planet’s unexplored north pole.
Mars has attracted more space missions than the rest of the solar system’s planets, but nearly two-thirds of all Mars missions have failed in some way.
I’ve read or heard somewhere that the 2/3 value is true but the encompasses more than just the American attempts, whereas the American attempts are more of a 50-50 shot, still not the average you’d have high hopes for but better than 33%.
Honda’s child-sized ASIMO robot will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra when it performs “Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha” during a special performance on May 13.
The concert featuring famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma is part of the DSO’s youth music program.
The bubble-headed ASIMO looks like a child in a white spacesuit. Honda Motor Co. designed it to help people and hopes it someday will assist the elderly and disabled in their homes.
The robot is being used today to encourage and inspire young students to consider studies in math and science.
ASIMO can walk, even jog, wave, avoid obstacles and carry on simple conversations.
Burlington’s iRobot Corp. said today that its Army contract to develop next-generation portable battlefield robots now totals $63 million.
That total includes $6 million to accelerate delivery of 25 Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or SUGV, robots to the Army’s Future Combat Systems program for testing.
To date, iRobot said it has delivered more than 1,400 PackBot robots to military and civilian customers; the PackBot can scout hostile terrain without putting soldiers at risk.
Modeled after the PackBot, the SUGV features a rugged, lightweight body that enables a single soldier to carry and deploy the robot, the company said.
Aside from military robots, iRobot also makes robots that do household chores; the Roomba, for example, will vacuum floors and rugs.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
Officials at one eastern Kentucky hospital say their patients soon won’t have to travel to see a specialist.
That’s because they’re bringing the specialists to them with a robot.
Officials at Saint Joseph Hospital in Martin say the robot is controlled wirelessly from a computer with a joystick.
They say their robot will allow doctors from anywhere in the Saint Joseph System to see patients at the Floyd County hospital.
Hospital officials say doctors have to first get credentials before they can see patients wirelessly from the robot.
All seven Saint Joseph facilities in the state now have a robot doctor.
Sarah Connor would likely destroy TERRI the robot and all of its creators but the people of Honolulu, Hawaii visiting the Mad About Science Festival absolutely loved the fully integrated interactive robot.
The undisputed star at yesterday’s Mad About Science Festival at the Bishop Museum’s Great Lawn, Watumull Planetarium, and Science Adventure Center was a mobile robot with blinking baby blue eyes, an inquisitive manner, a helium voice, and the gift of gab.
Kids and adults flocked around TERRI the Robot throughout the morning and afternoon. The gabby robot sang songs, charmed onlookers, and challenged anyone to ask him a question he couldn’t answer. If no one had a question, TERRI would supply one himself.
“What’s Luke Skywalker’s favorite car?” he asked Randy Gillin, 10, of Kailua, before answering his own question. “A toy-Yoda.”
With TERRI the phrase “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” does not apply. That’s because there’s no one behind a curtain. Unlike shopping mall robots with voices supplied by some secret, nearby human with a remote microphone, TERRI speaks for himself, or herself if you prefer. Gender seemed to be a question. But TERRI did ask one girl for a date and her phone number, and just about everyone refers the robot as “he.”
TERRI stands for The Educational Resource Robot Initiative, and is a Conceptual Visions Corporation robot sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to promote science education.
The technical description: “A fully integrated interactive robotic device that can be put into a fully automatic mode so that it can interact without any outside intervention or telemetry.”
That’s fancy talk for a robot with a personality and smarts.
“Terri has full artificial intelligence,” said Nadia Sbeih, a NOAA outreach coordinator, who was one of TERRI’s aides yesterday. “He’s got a huge data base that’s actually in Westin, Va. So he networks to that database, and then responds.”
