FEATURED ARTICLE Robonaut: A Dexterous Humanoid Robot The next part of the tour brought the group to the Robotic Systems Technology branch at NASA, which is responsible for the Robonaut. The Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot that is designed to aid—not replace— astronauts in orbit. Although the Robonaut is modeled after the human body, it can do things that the human body cannot. For instance, the Robonaut’s arms can move with 7 degrees of freedom and can lift a significant amount of weight for up to 15 minutes. This aspect is extremely beneficial for missions that require potentially dangerous tasks outside of the ISS. The current Robonaut is primarily a torso that can be attached to parts of the ISS for specific tasks, but it will eventually have legs that can latch on to handrails on both the interior and exterior of its environment for independent movement. One of the most astonishing features of the Robonaut is its ability to locate an independent object and pick it up with its robotic hands. The robotics team did a demonstration of this ability by simply placing an electric drill on a table in front of the Robonaut. What followed next was amazing; the Robonaut, recognizing the object in front of him, moved his head in the direction of the drill, extended his arm towards it, wrapped his fingers around it, and pressed on the trigger of the drill to use it. The dexterity of the fingers mimicked the exact movements of a human being’s. The Robonaut is able to do this by recognizing the standalone object, digitally painting that object green (if it thinks it can pick it up), and creates a map of how tall the object is, and how far the arm needs to extend in order to pick it up. Although this may seem like too lengthy a procedure just to pick up an ordinary object, you have to take yourself out of gravity’s orbit to see it’s benefits; when an astronaut is floating in the ISS making critical repairs, he or she needs to have a reliant way of obtaining the necessary tools without having to break the focus from the objective. That’s where the Robonaut comes in. While there is still a ways to go to get the response time and mobility to advance, the Robonaut is definitely one of the most capable, independent robot humanoids out there today. Visit: eeweb.com
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