Hi Billy, On Nov 2, 2010, at 10:49 AM, [email protected] wrote: > The beauty of Robonaut, officials say, is it's strong yet safe and > trustworthy enough to work right next to humans. It's also serenely mute, > more WALL-E than R2-D2 of "Star Wars" fame. > > Discovery's astronaut-physician, Michael Barratt, would have loved to pawn > off toilet cleaning while living at the space station last year. As appealing > as Robonaut is, he cautions "it will be a long time" before the robot can do > a job as quickly and efficiently as a space station human.
Sounds impressive, but I'm a bit skeptical. Robots designed to mimic humans tend to make great cinema, but lousy workers. > Legs are still in the works. But, oh, what an upper body: perfectly toned > arms and hands with palms, a robotic rarity, along with broad shoulders and a > washboard stomach.Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood's cyborg Terminator, would > be proud. > > Watch Robonaut lifting a 20-pound (9-kilogram) dumbbell, and "you can kind of > feel the burn," Ambrose said, showing a video at a recent news conference. > > Unlike people who tend to cheat, "this robot will really do what the physical > trainers tell you to do, which is to do the bicep curls nice and slow," he > said. > > Made of aluminum and nickel-plated carbon fiber, the torso and arms are > padded to protect Robonaut and the astronauts, all the way down to the five > fingers on each hand. No metal, bony-looking fingers for this robot. > > R2's eyes are where they should be: in its gold-colored head. Four visible > light cameras are located behind the robot's visor, and an infrared camera is > in its mouth for depth perception. That said, if they do actually manage to get useful work out of him, I will be deeply impressed and revise my skepticism. We'll see... -- Ernie P. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
