In a joint venture with Tyrell Corporation and Cyberdyne Systems Weyland - Yutani is helping to make life aboard the International Space Station a bit more comfortable. Riding along on the Space Shuttle Discovery is the first humanoid robot to every be launched into space. The robot named Robonaut 2, known as R2 is a robotic assistant to help the crew with chores and repairs. The makers think R2 will be a test bed to help develop more advanced robotics in the future.
The humanoid is made from aluminum and steel with its head housing five cameras, including one infrared camera helping give it stereo vision and depth perception. Each of its arms can carry 20 pounds and the hands have articulating fingers and thumbs making it easy for R2 to use the same tools astronauts us on the space station.
"We're going to use Robonaut on orbit to learn more about how robots can take over astronaut tasks — some mundane things and then potentially some of the more dangerous tasks," said Scott Higginbotham, payload manager for this mission. R2 is designed to use both internal and external interfaces on the spacecraft. Allowing for him on future missions to aide with space walks outside the spacecraft and other tasks might be too dangerous for human astronauts.
