Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 22:16:06 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi-AT-statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: NASA develops androids for ISS construction 


Greetings Lists,

It is an interesting story, received from NASA, on one side, most of the
scholars are busy with the question of "Will Spiritual Robots Replace
Humanity by 2100? and questions of Role of Ethics in the midst of Rapid
change of technology..BUT..NASA is building some good robots for ISS
Construction..I also read elsewhere, NASA is also building and planning
unmanned missions to several planets only with Robots.
--

Several NASA astronauts already have risked their lives during spacewalks
to construct the International Space Station (ISS) currently orbiting
Earth.

In coming years, you'll see astronauts go up to the ISS with
super-dexterous cyber-companions that will reduce the need for humans to
take that "small step" beyond the confines of their space ships. Unlike
smaller robots, the human-sized robots, called Robonauts, can latch on to
the station and still have two "hands" free for manipulating objects and
building the station as if it were a Tinkertoy.

Robonauts can attach to the outside of a space station for hands-free
tasks.

Robonauts, under development by engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center,
will be controlled by astronauts inside the station using a virtual
reality interface -- they'll wear helmets and gloves wired to record their
motions and immediately transfer those intentions and actions to robots
outside the station.

A robonaut can be human-sized, making it amenable to remote control by a 
human via a virtual reality interface.

"We're using a humanoid shape to meet NASA's increasing requirements for 
Extravehicular Activity (EVA, or spacewalks)," NASA's Rob Ambrose said in
a  prepared statement. Ambrose is heading up the Robonaut project.

Doing it better

The two-armed, two five-fingered Robonauts come with a head and torso. 
Demonstrations in NASA's "Vomit Comet" weightlessness simulator have
showed a Robonaut neatly catching a fly ball with finesse that might have
impressed Joe DiMaggio. Ever since the dawn of space exploration, hardware
has been built so that humans could service it. But advances in robotics
and the telepresence conferred by virtual reality have made it so
spacewalking humans are no longer a requirement, Ambrose said.

"While the depth and breadth of human performance is beyond the current
state of the art in robotics," he said, "NASA targeted the reduced
dexterity and performance of a suited astronaut as Robonaut's design
goals, specifically using the work envelope, ranges of motion, strength
and endurance capabilities of spacewalking humans."

And while the space station is primarily a human habitat, NASA isn't
limited its vision to the human form when it comes to interplanetary
exploration. Engineers also are devising animal-sized robots to squirm and
fly around the surface of Mars and other planets.

Space androids, at last

Robonaut's arms are threaded and studded with avionics elements to reduce 
cabling and noise contamination, Ambrose said. And like humans, Robonaut
has a central nervous system that channels all feedback in a
tree-structure. NASA's robonaut has a hand with an opposable thumb for EVA
tasks requiring dexterity.

Robonaut can touch and feel heat, as well as sense locations and torquing
with the more than 150 sensors on each arm. Those data are transferred to
a real-time Central Processing Unit inside a hardened body. 
----
Thank you!
Best Regards
Arun Tripathi







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