Where Innovation Meets Imagination
The Russian space agency is planning to send its humanoid robot Fedor to the International Space Station.
Fedor stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research and seems to have been developed as a fighting robot.
Fedor can shoot guns, drive cars and use a variety of tools, including drills, according to a video by Interesting Engineering (video below). [Read more…] about Robots in space: Russians to send Fedor the humanoid robot to the International Space Station
Later today – at 5.42am EST to be exact – a spherical robot designed and developed by IBM, Airbus and DLR will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a SpaceX rocket on a journey to the International Space Station.
The robot, called “Cimon”, is said to contain “next-level intelligence” and will take part in many scientific experiments on the ISS mission.
Cimon – which is pronounced “Simon” and stands for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion – is about the size of a basketball and will accompany German astronaut Alexander Gerst. [Read more…] about Spherical robot designed and developed by Airbus, IBM and DLR to be launched into space later today
NASA is planning to send a tiny robotic helicopter to Mars in its ongoing search for alien life on the Red Planet.
The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, (see video below), will travel with the agency’s Mars 2020 rover mission, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine apparently dropped subtle hints that aliens could finally be found for the first time. “NASA has a proud history of firsts,” he said. [Read more…] about NASA to send tiny robotic helicopter in search for aliens on Mars
Nasa has apparently put Puerto Rico on the path to possibly providing assistance to the space agency in its never-ending search for alien life in the universe.
Puerto Rico’s scientists and residents may be able to help Nasa make contact with aliens, and the space agency’s decision to choose the Caribbean island to host the Technology Infusion Road Tour in 2019 is highly likely to help in that ultimate goal.
Puerto Rican scientists claim Nasa’s only purpose with the decision to hold the conference on the picturesque island is to “contribute to the strengthening of the country’s aeronautical and aerospace industry”. [Read more…] about Nasa puts Puerto Rico on the road to helping search for aliens
Nasa is planning to send shapeshifting robots to search for alien life on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Titan is 50 per cent larger than Earth’s moon and is said to be “Earth-like” in the way it has wind, rain, volcanoes and other climactic characteristics.
However, while it looks and behaves somewhat like Earth, Titan is believed to be full of methane and ethane, which are obviously not breathable by humans. [Read more…] about Nasa considers sending shapeshifting robots to search for aliens near Earth
Inspecting the outer shell of an aeroplane sounds so mind-numbingly boring that it absolutely must be one of those so-called “3D” – dirty, dull and dangerous – jobs that robots are supposed to save us from.
The absolute tedium of closely inspecting every square centimetre of the surface area of, for example, a typical Boeing 747 – which is about 22,000 square feet – would inevitably mean that some tiny imperfections can be missed by human eyes.
But could robots do the job any better? [Read more…] about Robotic inspection: Nasa testing new system for checking and fixing aircraft fuselages
The market for humanoid robots is forecast to grow to $4 billion in about five years, according to a new report by ReportsnReports.
The researcher values the current market at approximately $320 million in 2017. So that would mean annual growth of more than 50 per cent.
Humanoids include such robots as Pepper and Nao, which are owned by SoftBank Robotics, as well as Emiew, produced by Hitachi, and Honda’s famous Asimo, although that one is more of an exhibition robot.
The others, like Nao and Pepper, for example, are already finding many buyers. SoftBank says it has sold 10,000 units of Nao, and it releases batches of 1,000 at a time of the Pepper robot, and it sells out online within minutes. [Read more…] about Humanoid robot market to grow to $4 billion in five years
Nasa astronauts went on a spacewalk today to replace one of the two Latching End Effectors on the International Space Station’s robot arm, called Canadarm 2.
The two astronauts were named as Commander Randy Bresnik and Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei, and the duration of the spacewalk was said to be 55 minutes.
The astronauts also carried out a range of additional maintenance and upgrading tasks, including the removal of the multi-layer insulation from a spare direct current switching unit, and preparing a flex hose rotary coupler for future use. [Read more…] about Nasa astronauts carry out maintenance work on robotic arm on the International Space Station
Space Systems Loral says it successfully completed the preliminary design review for Nasa’s Restore-L mission to provide satellite servicing in low earth orbit.
With the completion of the preliminary design review, Restore-L is proceeding on schedule to the next phase of development and its launch in 2020.
As announced last year, SSL is working with Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center’s Satellite Servicing Projects Division, to build a spacecraft that will change the nature of how infrastructure in space is managed by, for the first time in history, refueling a satellite in orbit that was not designed for servicing. [Read more…] about Nasa and SSL complete preliminary design review of robot that will fix satellites
Honeybee Robotics has received four Nasa Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I awards and two Nasa Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I award to develop new spacecraft systems and enabling technologies.
The awards will allow Honeybee to analyze concepts for advanced future planetary exploration, sampling, in-situ resource utilization, and on-orbit operations. [Read more…] about Honeybee Robotics wins Nasa funding for six spacecraft projects
