'One giant leap for tinman kind': Space station's humanoid robot comes alive



Nasa's humanoid robot has finally awakened in space.



Ground controllers turned Robonaut on today for the first time since it was delivered to the International Space Station in February.



The test involved sending power to all of Robonaut’s systems, though the robot was not commanded to move, that will happen next week.

Astronaut Scott Kelly, Expedition 26 commander poses with Robonaut 2, the dexterous humanoid astronaut helper, in the Destiny laboratory of the Space Station

And in keeping with current trends, Robonaut even has his own Twitter page.

He posted today: 'Those electrons feel GOOD! One small step for man, one giant leap for tinman kind.'



The four visible light cameras that serve as Robonaut’s eyes turned on in the gold-coloured head, as did the infrared camera, located in the robot’s mouth and needed for depth perception.



One of Robonaut’s tweets showed the view inside the American lab, Destiny.

'Sure wish I could move my head and look around,' Robonaut said in the tweet.



Robonaut - the first humanoid robot in space - is being tested as a possible astronaut’s helper.



The robot’s handlers at Mission Control in Houston cheered as everything came alive.



The robonaut tweeted today: 'Those electrons feel GOOD! One small step for man, one giant leap for tinman kind'

The main computers - buried inside Robonaut’s stomach - kicked on, as did the more than 30 processors embedded in the arms for controlling the joints.

Deputy project manager Nicolaus Radford said: 'It was just very exciting. It’s been a long time coming to get this thing turned on.'



NASA'S ROBOTICS

Nasa researchers envision futuristic robots that 'act' like people to enable these mechanical helpers to work more efficiently with astronauts. 'Our goal is not for robots to have the same thought process as humans, but rather for them to act, respond and interact more naturally in ways that humans do with other humans,' said Illah Nourbakhsh, a scientist who leads a group developing human-robot teams at Nasa Ames Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley. There are three main areas that Nasa will develop. One is called 'collaborative control,' during which the human being and the robot will speak to one another and work as partners. 'A key benefit of collaborative control is that the robot is able to ask questions of the human in order to compensate for (the robot's) limitations,' Ms Nourbakhsh explained. Human-robot teams must be reliable, survivable, reusable and low-cost, according to scientists, who hope to enable robots to receive general commands, such as, "inspect habitat." The human-like machines would then autonomously perform tasks and seek help only when they encounter problems they cannot solve by themselves.



Source: www.nasa.gov

The robot was delivered on space shuttle Discovery’s final flight. It took this long for the operating software to get up there, and for the astronauts to have enough time to help with the experiment



On September 1, controllers will command Robonaut to move its fingers, hands and arms.

Mr Radfrord said: 'It’s been asleep for about a year, so it kind of has to stretch out a little bit.



'Just like a crew member has to kind of acclimate themselves to zerogravity, our robot has to do a very similar thing, kind of wiggle itself and learn how it needs to move in weightlessness.'

For now, Robonaut exists from the waist up. It measures three feet four inches tall and weighs 330 pounds. Each arm is two feet eight inches long.



A pair of legs currently are being designed and should be launched in 2013.



Mr Radford said if everything continues to check out well, the robot may be able to take on a few mundane chores — like taking air velocity measurements inside the space station — early next year.



For now, Robonaut — also called R2 — is designed to stay inside the space station. Future versions might venture out on spacewalks, saving astronauts time while keeping them safe.



During today's two-hour test, U.S. astronaut Michael Fossum and Japanese spaceman Satoshi Furukawa took Robonaut from its sleeping bag, placed it on its fixed pedestal, then floated away as ground controllers took over. The robot went back into its bag following the test.



Because Robonaut has some flammable parts, Nasa wants it stored in its fireproof bag.



Controllers were tempted to make the robot move, but held off.

