NASA’ s Robonaut is presented as one of the most technologically striking tools. It is a robot that combines the most advanced scientific creation systems to date and all of the popular agency’s space exploration experience patterns.
NASA has always shown itself to be an institution passionate about science and technology, ever since it began its space exploration work decades ago, becoming prominent with the 1969 moon landing maneuvers.
Why did NASA develop the Robonaut?
The Robonaut has been created with the intention of improving productivity in NASA’ s exploration tasks , bringing more efficiency and safety to all the missions they want to plan. The idea of creating it arose at the beginning of the year 2000 when the institution began with the objectives of introducing robotic tools into space.
The final goal at the time of completion was to have a Robonaut able to perform all the tasks assigned to the astronauts in space, creating a support for any kind of dangerous tasks, avoiding the overload of work to the people belonging to the missions.
What is the Robonaut like?
The Robonaut is able to move throughout the International Space Station, accessing places that are more difficult for people to reach. Its design facilitates any type of moving task, thanks to its articulated legs and feet. It can repair any type of object and can even be independent when performing scientific experiments.
This one captures the attention of anyone who is looking at it, thanks to its humanoid appearance, with the possession of articulated arms, hands and legs. It has several sensors on its head that allow it to contemplate and analyze all the objects in its environment.
Although it is endowed with considerable autonomy, the Robonaut is built in a way that allows astronauts to control it at certain times, giving it orders or supervising the tasks it is doing even if it is far away. This type of collaboration between robots and astronauts will generate better coordination, creating much more productive and dynamic teams.
What tasks has the Robonaut already done?
NASA has already enabled the Robonaut to perform a variety of repair and maintenance tasks, also getting to work with switches and perform tasks with great dexterity and coordination, encouraging mission leaders to think about much more robust and successful projects.
It is possible that NASA will count on the Robonaut for its upcoming missions to the Moon and Mars, although they have not yet shared data in detail, and officially, about it. The help, in this case, that technology can provide, is opening up new possibilities, being a tool they will surely count on in the future.
The Robonaut is also known as R2, the name by which it has been christened in a rather curious way. NASA has on numerous occasions shared some of its videos of NASA performing its tasks, so that space and technology enthusiasts can observe how its hands move and how its sensors work.
