Robotics in space?

I was wondering how motor functions would work in Space? Would they work any differently to how they work now on earth or would you require a completely new set of equipment? I wonder simply for the future use of robotic probes in space and on other worlds.

The requirement for Natural motor movements with astronauts have been key to the assembly of the ISS and i believe the hubble telescope? Are we close to creating robotics that can either match or provide more precise movements than human motor functions?

Please, anything you know would be a great help. I'm sorry i lack this knowledge and that the post is short

Semoro

reply to post by Semoro


Have a look at icub its an open source project, so you can get the plans build one yourself...

www.youtube.com...
www.robotcub.org...

Human motor function is a little slower than on Earth. But not by much. Operating a robot from space should be about the same as operating one on earth. But the longer a human is in space, the weaker they get. When gravitational force is not constantly applied to the muscles, they begin to atrophy and weaken. This further reduces motor function.

However, if you are remote operating a robot that is in space from a distant location like Earth, your motor response will always be normal but there will be a delay in movement response by the robot. The further away you are, the longer the delay.

There's people working on better robotics, trying to make them as good as human motor movement, but they haven't yet succeeded. Putting robotics in space is definitely possible; look up the Canadarm, for an example. The trickiest part of designing a good robotic hand, from what I've seen, seems to be building it such that all of the 'degrees of freedom' are as good as a real, human hand. (there are six degrees of freedom, representing moving left, right, up down, etc)

This one looks pretty cool, for example: en.wikipedia.org... It is depicted holding a lightbulb with its fingers.

I don't see any particular difficulty in transferring the technology into space, beyond the obvious difficulty of actually getting it up there in the first place. In some ways, it might actually be easier, because you wouldn't have to deal with things like air resistance, dust, moisture, and so on. However, in other ways it would be much tougher; if the device needed maintenance, for instance, you'd need an astronaut to fix it, so you would have to make sure the device could operate for a very long time without maintenance.

The idea of robotics in space i suppose is to find a universal application, sort of like a computer can email, process data, play games, record music, video etc. So they'd have to find a layout that could easily be used for all the different applications required, reparation, building, collecting etc. These robotics could end up being repaired by another robot haha! This way deep space operations could become sustainable!