Alexander Lewis
Dec 28, 2023
Valkyrie — NASA's humanoid robot which is designed to operate in "degraded or damaged human-engineered environments," —is being tested at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, according to NASA.
NASA engineers believe that the human-like robot could work a lot like humans and use tools and equipment just like we do.
Shaun Azimi, head of NASA’s Dexterous Robotics Team, said that these humanoid robots in space might be able to do dangerous jobs, such as cleaning solar panels or checking broken equipment outside the spaceship. This way, astronauts can focus on exploring and making discoveries.
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"We're not trying to replace human crews, we're really just trying to take the dull, dirty and dangerous work off their plates to allow them to focus on those higher-level activities," Azimi said.
According to Reuters, NASA is collaborating with robot experts like Apptronik from Austin, Texas, to discover how robots made for Earth can aid space-centric. Apptronik is creating Apollo, a humanoid robot designed for jobs on Earth, like handling packages and organising items in warehouses. They aim to offer these robots to companies starting in early 2025.
"We're targeting having this system online 22 hours a day," Paine said. "This does have a swappable battery, so you can work for four hours, swap the battery and then keep going in a very quick duration."
"The approach is we're starting in the warehouse and on the manufacturing floor, but then it can move into retail... to delivery and out more into what we call unstructured spaces," Cardenas said.
