Robonauts

January 10, 2006 | Source: Boston Globe

The new robot designs for space exploration are part of a broader shift toward a vision of robots that are partners, not simply remote-controlled probes.

At the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, robots are developing the skills they’ll need to be useful to people. The Mertz robot recognizes faces and distinguishes one person from another. Obrero, a mechanical arm, has a touch so sensitive it can pick up a fluffy stuffed cow or a plastic toy — delicate tasks that have foiled many other robots.

At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, researchers are developing Robonaut, an agile, tool-using robot-astronaut that can outlast any human on a space walk. SCOUT, a lunar rover being developed by NASA, will carry astronauts but will also have the potential to act on its own.