Pass me the spanner, comrade Fedor
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that...
The Russian national space agency has strapped a hefty humanoid robot weighing 160kg (353lb) to a rocket and launched it to the International Space Station. At 0338 UTC on Thursday, a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying supplies and science experiments for the ISS. The only …
“Thankfully, it won’t be doing that in space. Instead the bot will be carrying out menial tasks, such as connecting electrical cables, and using tools like screwdrivers and spanners under zero-gravity conditions.”
A 5’ 11” robot does not need guns: it can just as easily remove bits off squishy humans with a screwdriver.
Yes, like inserting malware into the guidance system, sabotaging experiments, covering the solar panels with a special fluid that gradually turns opaque in the sunlight . . . you know, menial tasks.
On a side note, anybody wonder why absolutely nothing was said about this launch before it was successful ? Nobody was talking about this a week before launch, and it would have been a great attention-grabber, don't you think ?
Maybe the Soviet Union still lies in the shadows, ensuring that only good news gets out. It the rocket had failed, we might never have heard about this.
Rah! Rah! Rasputin lover of the Russian queen...We all know where this is heading... ..... Anonymous Coward
I respectfully submit no one but a many and almighty few know where the future is headed to or returning from.
Are we all here one of them, .... a many and almighty few?
Would that terrorise .... or comfort you?
Do El Reg know?
Yes, like inserting malware into the guidance system, sabotaging experiments, covering the solar panels with a special fluid that gradually turns opaque in the sunlight . . . you know, menial tasks.
Do you have a problem with Russians or Russia, Pascal? Why would they do any of the above?
My thoughts are that Fedor sounds too much like Fagor, the gun-toting autonomous robot in Earthsearch!
In a weightless environment you don't really need something designed to be able to cope with obstacles like stairs, and the like. You need something optimized to move in such environment and manipulate things around it - in any direction. An octopus-like design would be more functional, IMHO, albeit probably far more scaring for its human companions....
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A humanoid robot fits spaces designed for humans, no? ... Neil Barnes
And never discount merely spaces designed by humans for Alien Infiltration, Neil Barnes, .... with Virtually Real Population of Heavenly Perfumed Gardens. And thereafter with such a Creation, to Share and Build Accurate Copies of Them All Way Down Below and on Earth.
Just follow only the best of enlightening scripts for the greater pictures they paint are almighty engaging and immaculately captivating. And Always the Most Enjoyable and Extremely Exciting Experiences the Perfect Goal to Achieve and/or Aspire to Attain.
Where would one start to build such a FuturistICQ Society ...... Providing New Spaces for All to Work, Rest and Play in?
Does the UN have a CyberIntelAIgent Division? Do Nations have Representative Agents Non-State ACTor Factoring in the Field?
And now y'all know what else can be so easily very quickly done.
With Everything Available in a SMARTR Open Package Program Forum ..... for Bigger Picture Epics.
"An octopus-like design would be more functional"
Maybe if it was autonomous, but this one is a remote controlled avatar designed to mimic the actions of a human operator, so it makes sense if the arms and head are in a humanoid configuration to match the operator's hand-eye coordination.
> it makes sense if the arms and head are in a humanoid configuration to match the operator's hand-eye coordination
Absolutely, and that's why our cars, aircraft and boats are all shaped like human bodies. And it's a good thing they put arms and legs on those flying drone things too - how else would we be able to operate them? Not to mention how humanoid submersible ROVs have revolutionised everything from pipeline laying to wreck surveys.
Have you ever used a pen tablet? Human hand-eye coordination works really rather well in unnatural suitations, given a little bit of practice.
Who said it was built for weightlessness? "ISS-specific robots" is a tiny, insignificant market; I think they just sent it up there for tests and PR (the fact it will only stay there for a short time seems to confirm this), the main use of this robot would be on earth, and humanoid configuration allows it to be as versatile as possible (able to replace similarly configured humans and use their equipment and installations).
" the main use of this robot would be on earth"
Perhaps the real test is to see if it can survive an unassisted re-entry, land without damage, and still shoot two pistols at once. If so, just imagine how an entire army of them could assist humanity in the future...