Humanoid Robots

Recently NASA gave the Massachusetts Institute of Technology one of their R5 “Valkyrie” humanoid robots to study. Since that time, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has been developing special algorithms that will allow these robots to help out during future missions to Mars and beyond.

These efforts are being led by an electrical engineer and computer programmer who helped program the Atlas robot to take part in the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge. The robots will be tested in a simulated environment and judged based on their ability to complete three tasks. These include aligning a communications array, repairing a broken solar array, and identifying and repairing a habitat leak. 

The robots will be tasked with things like opening airlock hatches, attaching and removing power cables, repairing equipment, and retrieving samples all on its own. And of course, if it takes a spill and falls down, it will have to be able to get up on its own.

NASA's R5 "Valkyrie" robot may become a regular part of future crewed missions to Mars and beyond