Robonaut-2 (R2), the first humanoid robot in space, was delivered to the International Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. R2 was designed by NASA and GM to work alongside astronauts, replacing them during dangerous spacewalks. R2 will assist astronauts with assembly and maintenance tasks outside the space station. R2 has a robotic torso and arms that allow it to use the same tools as astronauts. It can also lift heavy objects and has dexterous hands and fingers to perform delicate tasks. R2 is undergoing testing aboard the space station and will eventually work outside during spacewalks.

1. 30 ElEctronics Robotics
Engineering & technology 13 November - 10 December 2010 www.theiet.org/magazine

2. 31
Semi-autonomous robots are on duty throughout the solar
system – prosaic little boxes, waiting patiently to act out the
latest transmission from Earth. However, one passenger
aboard Nasa’s STS-133 mission to the Destiny laboratory
on the International Space Station may just ignite the
popular imagination. By Piers Bizony.
robonaut
it may seem like some sort of
science-fiction scenario, but
clever robots are scattered
widely across the vastness of
our solar system. all deep-space
flies in
probes and planetary landers
are capable of operating semi-
autonomously in order to cope
with the long time-lags between
radio commands from earth.
some, such as Nasa’s wheeled
mars rovers, also boast certain
degrees of mechanical
flexibility provided via pan-and-
tilt camera arrays, directable
radio antennas, steerable
wheels, extendable soil-sampling
arms and other instruments.
the public perhaps struggles
with the idea that these clunky
boxes are definable as robots,
but no one will be in any doubt
about Nasa’s latest non-human
space explorer.
at first glance it looks just
like an astronaut in a space suit.
even at second glance, it seems
at least as lively as a ‘star Wars’
character in an armoured mask.
its head is shaped somewhat like
a motorcycle helmet, but its
torso and arms, tipped by
elegant hands with slender
fingers and opposable thumbs,
look very like our own.
Robonaut, the first humanoid
robot ever sent into space, has
just arrived at the international
space station aboard space
shuttle Discovery, as part of the
payload for the sts-133 mission.
it was stowed for launch inside
the european-built Leonardo
cargo supply module, which is
now docked permanently on the
station to provide yet more
pressurised working volume.
in the coming months, the
robot will be unpacked from
its crate and repositioned inside
the larger Destiny laboratory
module. although its primary
task, for now, is to remain
aboard the station while under-
going further tests, it will
eventually be deployed outside
the pressurised shell of the
orbiting platform, where it
will assist human space
walkers in assembly and
maintenance tasks.
this flightworthy version of
the hardware is a second-genera-
tion machine, based on a proto-
type developed by Nasa and the E
www.theiet.org/magazine 13 November - 10 December 2010 Engineering & Technology

3. 32 ElEctronics Robotics
Robonaut-2 not only looks human, but is also designed to work like one.
R2 can use the same tools as space station crew and can replace
astronauts during spacewalks that are difficult or dangerous
ROBONAUT-2 (Designed by NASA and GM) Materials
Height: 102cm (from waist to head) Aluminium,
Shoulder width: 79cm steel, Kevlar,
Weight: 150kg Sensors: 350 Teflon
Arms: Twice as articulate
as human arm Backpack
might expect from a human
Conversion
Vision colleague.
system allows According to Dr Robert
Five cameras
R2’s batteries to Ambrose, chief of the Software,
provide stereo
be charged by Robotics and Simulation
and infrared vision Division at Nasa’s Johnson
terrestrial or ISS Space Center (JSC) in Houston,
Parts can power supplies “It operates at a speed and scale
be upgraded similar to us.” He clarifies this
or replaced by pointing out that no robot yet
built can truly meet that descrip-
tion. Nasa has set the bar slightly
lower, in terms of “the somewhat
Flight reduced dexterity, work
suit envelope and performance of a
human in a bulky space suit”.
In fact, Robonaut’s grasping
Each finger Torso skills and sensitivity to touch
has grasping Contains 38
are markedly finer than those of
force of 2kg PowerPC
a space-walking astronaut,
because its slender fingers have
Control processors Lower body no need for thick gloves. A set of
From Mission running VxWorks Legs are still in 14 brushless motors in each
Control, or operating system development – forearm drive the hands, each of
which has the proper comple-
locally from R2 initially ment of four fingers and an
International Strength mounted on opposable thumb, ensuring
Space Station Can lift mobile base compatibility with all the tools
(ISS) laptop 9.5kg designed for astronauts.
Robonaut can pick up a small
metal washer with tweezers, and
R2 IN SPACE has the strength to lift more than
nine kilos in weight. This may
Shuttle not sound like much, but it is
more than sufficient for the
Discovery Testing inertial loads that it will
will deliver R2 will work in encounter in the weightlessness
R2 in muti- Destiny laboratory, Task of space. The two fingers
purpose providing data on board furtherst from the thumb are
designed just for grasping, while
storage vibration, zero gravity, Stand the thumbs, forefingers and
module radiation exposure, and middle fingers are more fully
and electromagnetic mount dextrous. The palm is also
jointed.
interference Robonaut’s gold-plated head
Source: NASA © GRAPHIC NEWS
is articulated at the neck,
allowing a similar freedom of
movement to a human head.
F Defense Advanced Research and safer manufacturing Robonaut is a high-profile The torso is built from
Project Agency (DARPA) over techniques right here on the testbed for some of these aluminium, with Kevlar and
the last decade, and now coming ground.” ambitions. Teflon padding to protect it from
to fruition via a joint project It is also about the future of fire and micrometeorite
between Nasa, General Motors a faltering US industrial giant Hand and body impacts. The torso and arms are
(GM), and Houston-based as it looks towards new and post- Robonaut is designed to look and covered with a custom-fitted
Oceaneering Space Systems. petroleum automotive technolo- behave much like a space-suited fabric skin that secures the
Special legislation allows all gies. Assembly lines in the human, with no unexpected electrical wire harnesses and
three partners to protect their Far East harness the produc- protuberances or sharp edges. keeps dust away from the
joint intellectual property in a tivity of the world’s most When it drifts in and out of the mechanical joints. An inner
technology that could have advanced robotic assembly limited peripheral vision layer of foam padding absorbs
far-reaching implications on systems. GM wants to see afforded by an astronaut’s the impact energy of minor and
Earth as well as in orbit. “advanced robots working helmet visor, it will seem permissible collisions between
According to Alan Taub, together in harmony with perfectly familiar. Just as Robonaut and its astronaut
GM’s vice president for global people, building better, higher- importantly, its physical companions.
research and development, quality vehicles in a more gestures will mimic the Finally, we come to the lower
“For us, this is about safer cars competitive environment.” behaviours that an astronaut extremities. The torso tapers
Engineering & technology 13 November - 10 December 2010 www.theiet.org/magazine

4. 33
‘Here’s a robot that can
Robonaut joined
mission sts133
see the objects it’s going
after, feel the environment
and adjust to circumstances.
That’s pretty human. It opens
up endless possibilities.’
Ron Diftler, Nasa
neatly into the top of a single writer Isaac Asimov some half a operator inside the space
leg, with hip, knee and ankle century ago. In simple terms, an station, or down on the ground. one small step
joints. The ‘foot’ is an adaptor Asimovian robot has freedom of A stereo vision helmet allied
that clicks into various attach-
ment points on the outside of the
action unless the proposed
action threatens to cause harm
to a force feedback endoskeleton
and a pair of gloves studded
luNar roboNauT
space station, or on the end of to a human. with haptic sensors enables the In November last year, a study
long and similarly articulated Similarly, Robonaut operates operator to see and even to feel group at Nasa’s Johnson Space
robotic boom arms that are a hierarchy of ‘sub-autonomies’, Robonaut’s environment. The Center wrote the brief for Project
already part of the station’s with harm avoidance at the system is an advanced form of M, a proposed mission to land a
external equipment. Swapping top of the pyramid. Various what’s known as ‘telepresence’. Robonaut on the Moon in 1,000
between available handholds sub-autonomies run motion The application programmer’s days flat, measured from the time
and leg attach points, Robonaut control in 3D Cartesian space, interface (API) allows more than of budgetary approval to the
will clamber from one secure the vision system, the teleoper- 40 degrees of freedom to be moment of touchdown – M being
location to the next, covering ator interface, joint control, controlled remotely in a ‘master- the Roman numeral for 1,000.
ground, so to speak, as it makes and grasping actions. Each slave’ relationship where the The delivery vehicle would be
its way from one end to the other sub-autonomy deals with its operator’s motions are a small single-engined lander
of the sprawling complex, but own internal safety and decision mimicked, in near real-time, built by Armadillo Aerospace in
without ever completely letting making, but will ‘request’ rather by the robot. Mesquite, Texas: one of a dozen
go. It has no thruster packs or than ‘demand’ a reconfigura- A key factor in the API’s companies now making rapid
independent free-flying tion, or even a complete safety design is ease of use for the advances in the private rocket
capability. shutdown, if it senses trouble. human operator. Nasa likes to business. In June last year,
Higher level software then design its control systems with Armadillo successfully tested a
Laws of Robonautics monitors potential conflicts the human-machine interface at prototype lander fuelled by liquid
The common industrial practice between the sub-autonomies and the forefront of its thinking. methane and liquid oxygen. It
of having a workplace robot compares them with safety Astronauts tend to have took off from its terrestrial launch
cease all motion if anyone parameters before allowing or backgrounds in military platform, then hovered at a preas-
inadvertently touches it is not disallowing certain tasks. aviation or aerospace signed altitude and finally,
always appropriate for All this is accomplished by engineering, with biological performed a precision autono-
Robonaut, because it must be PowerPC processors running and space sciences also adding mous landing.
capable of interacting VxWorks, and wired to a Virtual to the selection mix. Relatively A lunar version of Robonaut
physically with astronauts Machine Environment (VME) few of them are professionally would operate in near real-time,
without necessarily coming to a backplane, or motherboard, familiar with computers or once the operators on Earth have
stop every time one of them inside Robonaut’s torso. VME robotics. They need to operate acclimatised their working habits
bumps into it. In particular, it allows the sharing of the under- the Robonaut without having to around the one second or so of
has to distinguish between lying machine resources know too much about its radio time lag in the command
dangerous collisions and between different virtual internal systems. Manipulation and feedback signals. Fanciful
desirable physical interactions machines, each running its own of the system must becomes as artwork shows the robot
when tools are passed from operating system. intuitive as performing the walking on the moon on two
robot to human hands, or when The object-oriented machine’s tasks oneself. legs, but Ambrose thinks that
the load of a particularly large ControlShell software frame- Could it be that Robonaut and bipedal locomotion may be too
piece of hardware is shared work is used to aid the overall his kind will one day supplant ambitious. “We’re looking at
between the robot’s grip and development process, which will humans in space? John Olson, other lower body designs for the
an astronaut’s. Ambrose says continue throughout Robonaut’s director of the Exploration Moon, with a four-wheel or
that indicator lights and other operational life. Systems Integration Office at six-wheel base,” he says. Neither
cues will ensure that Nasa’s headquarters in can we expect any poetic
Robonaut’s human minders the puppet masteR Washington, DC, says that such speeches when the robot takes its
will always have “a general Ron Diftler, Robonaut project a mournful outcome would be first look at the lunar terrain.
understanding of what state manager at JSC, speaks proudly the very opposite of his agency’s Nasa’s Ron Diftler says, “It will be
the robot is in.” about these capabilities. intentions. “This project working alone a lot. It won’t really
These states are analysed, “Here’s a robot that can see the exemplifies the fact that robots need to talk.”
in part, with the help of force- objects it’s going after, feel the are not replacements for us, but In the light of the Obama
feedback sensors. But Robonaut surrounding environment and companions that can carry out administration’s cool attitude
can also see what it is doing. Its adjust to circumstances as key supporting roles alongside towards future lunar exploration,
head contains four stereoscopic needed. That’s pretty us,” he says. Project M has not yet received
cameras, one pair in standard human. It opens up endless The combined potential of serious funding. Even so, the
definition and the other in HD. possibilities.” humans and robots is, Olson relative simplicity and low cost of
This enables the machine to build On the evidence of such a believes, “a perfect example the mission could win it the
a depth map of nearby objects, description, Robonaut sounds of the sum equalling more than necessary approval from US
which assists in collision avoid- suspiciously smart. If its actions the parts. It will allow us to go lawmakers anxious about the
ance as well as in the perform- and intelligent behaviour seem farther and achieve more country’s technology sector.
ance of its assembly tasks. almost spookily human, this is than we can probably even Young students in need of a little
Robonaut’s hazard assess- because they really are human. imagine today.” L inspiration would be thrilled to
ment is loosely comparable to Despite its semi-autonomous become telepresent lunar
the famous ‘Laws of Robotics’ capabilities, it is essentially an L further information explorers.
proposed by the science fiction avatar, driven by a human http://bit.ly/eandt-weblinks
www.theiet.org/magazine 13 November - 10 December 2010 Engineering & Technology

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