/ News
NASA’s Robot Astronaut Now Has Bendy, $15M Legs for Crawling Around the ISS
Having a skeleton crew aboard the International Space Station means forcing PhDs to pull double-duty as janitors, and sometimes to undertake dangerous space walks. NASA’s solution? Robonaut, or R2 as it’s called by shipmates on the International Space Station. Conceived of in 1997, the goal was to create a robot that would take on jobs that are too dangerous, or dull, for humans. It has been an engineering marvel: Engineers equipped R2 with arms and hands that can carry 40 pound payloads; 350 sensors feeding into 38 processors give it the ability to carefully manipulate a control panel, or even send a text message from an iPhone.
There was just one problem—it couldn’t move. R2 was either mounted on a pole or attached to a wheeled base, both non-starters in space. Now, NASA’s engineers have finally unveiled a bizarre-looking pair of legs that will help the robot crawl around.
Their design is a contrast to R2′s arms and hands. The latter had to be human-like, to be able to use the same tools as astronauts. The legs, however, had to accomplish superhuman feats. The gear-filled gams can span nine feet, featuring seven points of articulation. There are also a few extra touches, required for it to perform tasks on the ISS’s exterior.
“The legs have grippers designed specifically to grasp existing interfaces on the Space Station,” says Rob Ambrose, Chief of the Software and Robotics Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The grippers serve as feet, but unlike an astronaut wearing boots, Robonaut has the ability to climb with its legs, freeing its hands to carry objects or do work.” A team of eight engineers spent years and over $15 million dollars developing the legs that would make it flight ready, and the hope is to install them early this year.
The next step will be upgrading R2′s chassis with extra shielding from electromagnetic radiation and supports to withstand the vacuum of space so it can take on dangerous extravehicular missions. “No close calls like Gravity have occurred,” says Ambrose, but all the same, he likes the idea of onboard robots that can operate independently outside of a spacecraft. “A robot can hold its breath a long time, making it a potentially valuable and diverse member of the crew,” he says, drolly. Despite their cost, robots are still fairly disposable and can be left behind in an emergency evacuation or as a caretaker waiting for humans to return.
“The environment of space is unusual to us on Earth,” says Ambrose. Zero gravity, deadly vacuums, and extreme swings in temperature make stints aboard the ISS challenging—for some. “It’s tough for people, but a good application for robots.”
With NASA’s shuttle fleet grounded, limited space funding available in a post-sequester world, and plenty of upgrades still pending, it might be a while before R2 makes meaningful contributions in orbit, but the process of developing the ‘bot yielded a bevy of patentable inventions. Innovations in vision systems, control algorithms, and sensor integrations could be applied to terrestrial robots in manufacturing. The millions of dollars spent developing the legs could eventually help the paralyzed walk again in the form of new medically focused exoskeletons.
Even if R2 never makes it to the stars, NASA is using what it learned to develop a next-gen, 6′ 2″ bot called Valkyrie, which is designed to search for and recover survivors in disaster zones on Earth, or in the future, a Martian wasteland. It hasn’t fared well in early trials, but then again, some of NASA’s greatest accomplishments have begun with one small step.
Source: http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/forget-small-steps-nasa-wants-huge-robotic-strides/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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