Name: Robonaut-2, Address: International Space Station, Lower Earth Orbit

Can’t believe it? Even I couldn’t. Robonaut is a dexterous human like robot designed and built by the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houstan Texas. It is human-like above the waist and platform based below the waist. Dexterous, because it has been designed to work using its hands for better efficiency. It was mainly built to work alongside the humans as also in places where the risks were too high for the human.

The next generation Robonaut -2 aka R2 is even better. Robonaut-2 was built by NASA and General Motors with assistance from Oceaneering Space Systems engineers. It is a state of art highly dexterous robot. Built for automotive and aerospace industries it is anthropomorphic, i.e. it is capable of doing human like activities with ease. Just like Robonaut-1, R2 is efficient at handling an array of EVA tools and interfaces. However, R2 is definitely better when it comes to speed which is four times than that of the previous model. R2 is also more compact, more dexterous and is operational for a deeper and wide range of sensing.

The technologies used to make this human alike figure include:

[*]Optimized overlapping dual arm dexterous workspace.
[*] Series elastic joint technology.
[*]Extended finger and thumb travel.
[*] Miniaturized 6-axis load cells.
[*] Redundant force sensing.
[*] Ultra-high speed joint controllers.
[*] Extreme neck travel and
[*]High resolution camera and IR systems.

R2 can work neck to neck with the humans using the same equipments and tools. Astonishing as it is, this is the reason Robonaut is truly anthropomorphic. What makes R2 even better is that it would do the simple and repetitive tasks with human like efficiency without complaints unlike the humans who’d get bored of the repetitive schedule. Robonaut-2 will also step in when it comes to working at unsafe places thus, avoiding the risk of people working there. R-2 which has been recently launched at the International Space center won the Robot of the year by nearly 44% of votes from the readers of the website, Engadget.com. Still going through a period of testing and further development it is the first ever humanoid and dexterous robot in space.

At the moment R2 is deployed on a fixed pedestal but legs to climb the corridor and certain upgrades to allow it to go outside into space are on the way of development. John Olson, director of NASA's Exploration Systems Integration Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, "This project exemplifies the promise that a future generation of robots can have both in space and on Earth, not as replacements for humans but as companions that can carry out key supporting roles. The combined potential of humans and robots is a perfect example of the sum equaling more than the parts. It will allow us to go farther and achieve more than we can probably even imagine today."

Check out the Video below to know more about R-2:



This is sure some good work. What do you think CEans?