Astronauts test handyman robot

HOUSTON TODAY - The international space station's giant new handyman robot got its first checkup this Sunday, with astronauts and flight controllers testing its electronics, joints and brakes.

The Canadian-built robot, named Dextre, passed all but one of the tests. One of the wrist joint brakes in Dextre's left arm slipped a tiny bit more than engineers wanted, but Canada's acting space station program manager said he wasn't too concerned. The brakes help hold the arm steady.

"In the long term it's not going to affect the operation of Dextre in any significant way," Pierre Jean said.

Astronauts and flight controllers planned to test the brake a couple more times in hopes that it slips less as it gets more worn in, Jean said.

Two astronauts plan to take a spacewalk Monday night to add a tool holster and other accouterments for Dextre. When the robot is fully assembled, it will stand 12 feet and have a mass of 3,400 pounds.

Dextre — short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter — is designed to assist spacewalking astronauts and possibly someday take over some of the tougher chores, like lugging around big replacement parts.

Two astronauts installed Dextre's two 11-foot arms during an overnight spacewalk that lasted into the wee hours of Sunday.

Dextre has seven joints per arm and can pivot at the waist. Its hands, or grippers, have built-in socket wrenches, cameras and lights. Only one arm is designed to move at a time to keep the robot stable and avoid a two-arm collision. The robot has no face or legs.

Space station astronauts will be able to control Dextre, as will flight controllers on the ground. The robot will be attached at times to the end of the space station arm. It is also able to ride by itself along the space station arm's railway.

A total of five spacewalks are planned for Endeavour's nearly two-week visit to the space station, the most ever performed during a joint shuttle-station flight.

While some of the astronauts prepared for Monday night's outing, other crew members stowed equipment that was brought to the station aboard the storage compartment segment of Japan's Kibo lab. That will pave the way for the shuttle Discovery to deliver the $1 billion lab in May.

Liz Austin Peterson, Associated Press Writer

Above Pic: Silver City Mall Robot Arm Sculpture; Photography by Tomitheos

Pic#2: Painting of the Earth in Dark Space created by Tomitheos;  

Photography by Tomitheos

 

The Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator - nicknamed "Dextre" by the engineers who developed it - is a two-armed robot with a grip capable of manipulating objects the size of a phone booth and a touch nimble enough for it to slip a compact disc into a CD player.

James Mennie, The Gazette

Published: 

Monday, February 25, 2008
Dextre set to blast off into space

MONTREAL - Think of it as a $200 million snap-on.

"It's (the) most sophisticated tool the astronauts will ever get to use," says robotics engineering specialist Daniel Rey, "It's like a snap-on, but with the mechanic behind the snap-on tool.

"It will grab something, unbolt it, change something, put it back in - if there was an appropriate fixture for a light bulb on the space station, it could change light bulbs.

It's been 10 years in the making and is the only one of its kind on earth, and after March 11, even that will change, the robot scheduled to be blasted on its way to a rendez-vous with the International Space Station in orbit 385 kilometres above the planet.

Once there it can be used to perform exterior repairs on the station, anchored to a set of rails that run the length of the spacecraft or attached to the Canadarm 2.

To a layman, the robot looks like what happens when too many ball joints meet. But to an engineer, Dextre is the difference between an astronaut's being able to remain aboard the station or face the risks of a space walk to effect repairs on the spacecraft, which has literally been under construction for more than a decade.

"To me, risking an astronaut's life outside the station to change a battery isn't logical," says Rey, who led the technical team responsible for Dextre at the Canadian Space Agency, "It's easy to imagine that half a dozen to to a dozen (spacewalks) will be avoidable now."

Dextre is scheduled to be transported to the space station on March 11 as part of the payload of the space shuttle Endeavour, which is expected to spend 16 days in orbit.

Once the shuttle has rendezvoused with the station, astronauts will spend part of their mission assembling and installing the seven pieces that constitute Dexter onto the spacecraft's mobile servicing station (MSS), essentially a set of rails that run the length of the station's exterior.

Controllable either from the station or earthbound command centres at the Canadian Space Agency or NASA, Dextre can perform its tasks from its position on the MSS or attached to the station's Canadarm 2, another remote controlled robot installed at the station in 2001 and possessing a reach far longer than Dextre's.

Rey makes it clear that moving or stationary, Dextre's value is clear -either as an orbiting handyman (it is equipped with its own tool belt) or, if necessary, as an assistant to astronauts obliged to leave the station to effect repairs.

"The station is very big," he says, "It's the size of a football field. The astronauts always (exit the station) from the middle...if they have to go from one end of the station to the other to get a spare (part), Dextre can do that for them."

Dextre's $200 million price tag might leave seem a trifle high to some observers (although, considering that the space shuttle bringing it to the station cost more than $1 billion, the robot seems like a bargain).

Rey estimates that Dextre could very well outlive its estimated operational life of 15 years, and while he clearly states that a remote control robot could never completely replace an astronaut, when he's asked if there are maintenance jobs that can only be performed by space station personnel, Rey replied: "there are tasks requiring tools that have yet to be developed for Dextre."

But Rey acknowledges that there's at least one repair job a $200 million robot can't do.

"Dextre can change some of its parts, such as its cameras," says Rey, "And if one of its arms malfunctions, we can have a new part sent up from Earth.

"But it can't repair its own arm."

Above Pic: Silver City Mall Robot Arm Sculpture; Photography by Tomitheos

Pic#2: Painting of the Earth in Dark Space created by Tomitheos;  

Photography by Tomitheos

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