A robot with a distinct likeness to everyone?s favourite Star Wars character, Boba Fett, could be working on NASA spacecraft within a few years. The droid has developed an impressive level of dexterity??We’ve made some pretty significant steps forward,? said Chris Culbert, chief of robotics systems at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, whose latest model possesses flexible and arms and hands complete with five fingers, a strong torso and two color cameras for stereoscopic eyes. ?Previous ones were larger and not as dexterous as current ones,? he explains. The new slimline Robonaut, which is roughly the size of an astronaut in a spacesuit, is the ideal size for working with equipment designed over the decades for its humanoid counterparts.
Robonaut will have its advantages over its biological space buddies. A skin made of woven material similar to spacesuit fabric protects vulnerable areas against radiation and the extreme temperature variations of space. The droid exhibits more flexibility than humans, too: its wrists can rotate more, for example. But although it can grip power tools and tether ropes, its strength does not yet match that of its biological cousins. ?If you thumb wrestled Robonaut now, you’d win. In a couple years from now, that probably won’t be true,? says Culbert.The design of Robonaut’s crude nervous system - a web of sensors, software and circuits - was borrowed from human anatomy: engineers concentrated most of the controls and command structures in a mechanical backbone. Although Robonaut lacks the critical and creative intelligence necessary to handle complex tasks and unpredictable obstacles that often crop up in orbit, he has plenty of mechanical moves, which can be controlled by a human with virtual reality eyes and hands. The system ?gives a human the impression he’s in the robot,? Culbert says.With its epoxy helmet ‘inspired by centurion armor’, Robonaut bears more than a passing resemblance to Boba Fett, the interstellar bounty hunter in the Star Wars movie series. NASA says the likeness is purely coincidental. ?We took it from a generic head model,? Culbert claims. No-one?s yet contacted George Lucas to see how he feels about it.
Separated at birth? Boba Fett and Robonaut.
