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NASA and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology alumnus Kris Verdeyen have
taken one small step forward for robotics through this week’s launch of
the first human-like robot to space to become a permanent resident of
the International Space Station.
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Realizing A Dream: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology electrical
engineering alumnus Kris Verdeyen was a member of NASA’s robotics team that
developed the Robonaut2 sent to help astronauts at the International Space
Station. |
Robonaut 2, or R2, was developed jointly by NASA and General Motors
under a cooperative agreement to develop a robotic assistant that can
work alongside humans, whether they are astronauts in space or workers
at GM manufacturing plants on Earth.
The 300-pound R2 consists of a head and a torso with two arms and two
hands. The space shuttle Discovery was launched on February 24 as part
of the STS-133 mission. Once aboard the station, Verdeyen and other
engineers will learn how dexterous robots behave in space. The hope is
that through upgrades and advancements the robot could one day venture
outside the station to help spacewalkers make repairs or additions to
the station or perform scientific work.
“It's about as cool a job as a hardware guy could hope for,” said
Verdeyen, a NASA electrical robotics engineer and a member of the
Robonaut development team, shortly after the shuttle’s launch. "If
you're talking about the evolution of humans and robots working
together, these kinds of things now seem possible. It's a big step in
the evolution of human/robotic work.”
The dexterous robot not only looks like a human but also is designed to
work like one. With human-like hands and arms, R2 is able to use the
same tools station crew members use. In the future, the greatest
benefits of humanoid robots in space may be as assistants or stand-in
for astronauts during spacewalks or for tasks too difficult or dangerous
for humans.
“R2 is faster, safer, reaches farther and is smaller than the original
R1B was, by a long shot. R2 can do more real work than any other
humanoid in the world,” stated Verdeyen, a 2000 electrical engineering
graduate, in an email shortly after Robonaut2’s launch.
“While we did build R2 to be a very advanced robot, it isn't meant to
showcase anything. The robot is built to do work,” he says. “While NASA
has been known to occasionally launch showpieces or demonstration units
to the International Space Station, R2 weighs over 300 pounds and takes
up a fair bit of room. It would be a huge waste not to have R2 do real
work.”
Verdeyen has worked on versions of the Robonaut project for all of his
11 years with NASA. However, Robonaut 2 wasn't conceived for space
travel. In fact, Verdeyen states that Robonaut 2 was simply a lab
experiment until mid-2010. At that point, engineers started working to
get the robot ready to both survive the turbulent trip to the space
station and operate there over a long period of time.
“In January of 2010, it became apparent that there was enough spare
payload on STS-133 that we could put a Robonaut on ISS. Could we have
one ready to launch in 8 months? Our bluff had been called,” said
Verdeyen.
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Seen here, the current R2, retrofitted for the space station. At this
point, only an upper torso,
R2 is slated for mobility in the next project of his development.
See NASA Video. |
A challenge for Verdeyen and other NASA engineers was retrofitting all
of the robot's electronics to withstand radiation in space. R2 underwent
extensive testing in preparation for its flight. Verdeyen built a new
safety circuit when the original system failed under radiation testing.
He also rewrote embedded software and took over responsibility for some
of the hardware originally designed by a GM engineer.
Vibration, vacuum and radiation testing along with other procedures
being conducted on R2 also benefit the team at GM. The automaker plans
to use technologies from R2 in future advanced vehicle safety systems
and manufacturing plant applications.
Robonaut 2 has 38 Power PC processors, including 36 embedded ones. The
embedded chips are running in the machine's joints -- its hands,
shoulders, waist, elbows, neck and five large joints in each arm. Each
of the embedded processors control senses and movement in each joint.
However, the embedded processors don't communicate with each other; each
one communicates with the robot's main computer chip.
“It will be a while before we will let the robot walk without a safety
harness, but the day is coming,” Verdeyen says. “Working with NASA has
given me the opportunity to put hardware in space. What can be better
than that?”
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