Robonaut

A robonaut is a robot designed to assist humans in space exploration missions. As temperatures in space can range from -100 degrees Celsius to 120 degrees Celsius, astronauts need to wear space suits that cost 12 million dollars apiece. They also need at least a few hours of preparation before they can respond to any emergencies like external repairs on an international space station caused by collisions with space matter. Because of these inherent difficulties that human astronauts face, robonauts that can be fielded in far less time and with far less cost are being considered.

Human limitations and frailty in space have created the need for more versatile, robust and adaptive replacements in space-related tasks. In fact, robots have already served this need for more than 50 years starting with the planetary probe Mariner IV sent to bring back pictures of Mars. Likewise, the Pathfinder Mars rover was also sent to investigate the ground conditions in and atmospheric composition of Mars in 1997.

A robonaut, however, will have an entirely new design as they will be the first robots in space that will use the humanoid form. They will have two eyes, two arms, a head, and two hands.

Robonaut Parts

The torso will serve as the repository of the central processing unit as well as the central unit that will connect the extremities together. The head will house the cameras for capturing images that will be transmitted back to the human controller. The head will also include a jointed neck that will allow the head to move up, down or side to side.

The arms of the robonaut will be human-like but will have a greater degree of range and motion. It will be equipped with joints, sensors, fail-safe breaks, space motors and harmonic devices designed to give the robonaut as much dexterity and movement-freedom as possible. The arms will also house brushless motors that will be used to power the fingers in the hand.

The hands will have joints, four fingers and a thumb. A robonaut's hands, however, will be much more efficient in handling mechanical and complex jobs in space as they will not be constrained by space suits. In fact, a robonaut's arms and hands will work so well together that robonauts can use tweezers to pick up metal washers as shown in one of the experiments.

Robonaut Specs

A robonaut will be made of Aluminum, Teflon and Kevlar padding to give it protection against debris and fire. It will stand 1.93 meters tall, weigh 182 kilograms, and use a power PC processor and a VxWorks operating system.

Furthermore a robonaut can be remotely controlled by a human austonaut through telepresence. The human controller will be outfitted with a helmet and a glove similar to what is used by virtual reality users. The robonaut will copy any movement the controller makes inside the control station. The cameras in the robonaut's head would also give the controller a real-time view of what the robonaut is seeing.