SAR-400
Russia’s NPO-Android Technology, or NPO-AT, together with the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Central Research Institute of Machine Building, has developed a teleoperated humanoid robot that they call the SAR-400.
The SAR-400 is almost identical to NASA’s and General Motor’s Robonaut 2, and is being planned to join the International Space Station, or ISS, within the next two years. Like its spitting image, the SAR-400 humanoid space robot has no legs, making it possible for this humanoid space robot to be fitted to a crane onboard the ISS to save cosmonauts from the trouble of stressful space walks.
To operate the SAR-400 humanoid robot, its operator must don a head-mounted display or heads-up display (HUD), a sensor jacket, and haptic feedback gloves that dispatch movements directly to the humanoid’s head, arms, and hands. Should the robot get into trouble, a safety mechanism kicks in, alerting its operator that the robot is in distress without remotely destroying a part of the whole SAR-400 humanoid robot.
Russian space authorities are now testing this teleoperated space robot in a mock station based on Mir, where it practices things it is expected to do in outer space, i.e. bolt tightening, transferring cargoes, exterior hull inspection and opening hatches, before it actually goes to space.
For now, it would take 5-7 seconds for a radio signal to reach the satellite from earth and 15 minutes to relay the signal to Mars, something that is troubling Russian scientists, making this space robot rather impractical to use unless a human is based at a nearby space station. But with the advances of technologies, scientist are optimistic that one of these days, humanoid space robots can be fully teleoperated in space from one’s home on earth.
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