NASA unveils Valkyrie 'robot' for DARPA Robotics Challenge

DARPA has been hosting a Robotics Challenge since last year that challenged some participants to create robots that can be used in the real world. The official name for the Valkyrie robot given to it by NASA is R5. The bot stands 1.9 meters tall and weighs in at 125 kilograms. The robot has 44 degrees of freedom and is powered by batteries.

The robot was created in cooperation with the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, the University of Texas, and Texas A&M universities. Funding for the robot was granted by the State of Texas. The first competition for the DARPA robotics contest will happen later this month.

The Valkyrie robot will be competing against five other Track A teams that have developed their own robots. The DARPA contest requires the robots to walk over uneven terrain, climb a ladder, use tools, and drive a vehicle. One of the goals of the DARPA contest is to create robots that can take over from humans in certain situations without needing any special accommodations, which is why the robot is humanoid.

The arms of the robot have seven degrees of freedom with actuated wrists and hands. Each hand has three fingers and a thumb. The head can tilt and swivel around while the waist is able to rotate. The legs themselves offer the robot six degrees of freedom and end with feet that have six-axis force-torque sensors. The robot has a battery in its backpack good for an hour of use per charge. The designers of Valkyrie said that they leveraged some of the tech and knowledge gained in developing Robonaut over the years. Valkyrie even has a glowing circle in its chest that looks like Iron Man’s Arc reactor.



SOURCE: Spectrum
SOURCE: Slashgear

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NASA’s ISS 'Robonaut' 2 will soon have a pair of legs

Robots might not be at a Terminator level of sophistication, but the technology is growing rapidly, and NASA has revealed what it calls “another milestone” in humanoid space robotics: legs for the Robonaut 2, more commonly called R2. The agency’s engineers are presently working on the climbing legs, which will give the robot a new degree of mobile freedom, enabling it to perform more tasks than currently possible.

For now, the Robonaut 2 is attached to a support pillar, which you can see in the image above, giving it a degree of mobility while it is tested on the International Space Station, where it has been since early 2011. The new legs, which appear similar in design to the arms and don’t so much have feet as they do forward-flexing appendages, will allow the robot to do more both inside and outside of the ISS.

The development is being funded by the space agency’s Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates. Lending a bit of functionality akin to that of its partial namesake, the foot-like appendages have end effectors, which allow it to utilize sockets both inside and outside of the ISS, as well as handrails. The legs have a total span of 9-feet, and each leg has seven joints.

Said NASA’s associate administrator for space technology in Washington Michael Gazarik: “NASA has explored with robots for more than a decade, from the stalwart rovers on Mars to R2 on the station. Our investment in robotic technology development is helping us to bolster productivity by applying robotics technology and devices to fortify and enhance individual human capabilities, performance and safety in space.”



SOURCE: NASA
SOURCE: slashgear

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