NASA Partners With University Groups To Improve Humanoid Robots

NASA Partners With University Groups To Improve Humanoid Robots

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Humanoid robots could play a crucial role in an expedition to Mars. To help such robots become a reality sooner, NASA has awarded prototypes to two universities in order to conduct advanced research and development work.

Humanoid robots could perform many tasks that humans simply can’t. One such task would be outside maintenance work on spaceships in the harsh environment of space on the perilous journey to the Red Planet. Robots could also be used as part of an advanced expeditionary force to Mars, paving the way for later human explorations. Robots, like NASA’s R5, have the potential to save the lives of astronauts and extend mission viability. R5 was originally designed for disaster-relief operations, but its future make take it to the final frontier – deep space exploration.

“Advances in robotics, including human-robotic collaboration, are critical to developing the capabilities required for our journey to Mars,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are excited to engage these university research groups to help NASA with this next big step in robotics technology development.”

The chosen projects are:

  • Robust Autonomy for Extreme Space Environments at MIT
  • Accessible Testing on Humanoid-Robot-R5 and Evaluation of NASA Administered (ATHENA) Space Robotics Challenge at Northeastern University, Boston

The two university groups were chosen through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, and will receive as much as $250,000 a year for ywo years, as well as access to onsite and virtual support from NASA.

The goal of the project is to advance the software components of dexterous humanoid robots, to give them the autonomy required for space missions.