Robonaut B, a robot built with hands and television camera eyes, now has the option of rolling around Earth on a modified two-wheeled Segway scooter or grappling the international space station with a “space leg.”
Using its “space leg,” a kind of adapter that allows Robonaut B to plug itself into the same space station ports astronauts use for their foot restraints, the robot can move hand over hand outside the station and use tethers like its human counterparts.
The robot is programmed to protect itself from damage in the event of human error. It won’t, for example, drive through a brick wall if a tele-operator commands it to. It can also be told to pick up certain objects without specific motion directions, a useful skill on missions with five- to 10-second delays in communications.
The next step is developing a spaceworthy robonaut for flight tests, either aboard the space shuttle or the space station where human-robot cooperation can play an important role:
“If I were going to the moon, I would want a habitat already there and something to check that it is airtight and that oxygen is being produced,” said Robert Ambrose, Robonaut project lead at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “A robot can check that.”