Meet Robonaut 2 -- NASA's first humanoid robot in space

NASA’s humanoid robot looks like the offspring of a three-way between Daft Punk, C-3PO and a football player, and it goes by the name of R2 – Robonaut 2 if you’d like to get formal. The robot has recently taken on its first high-profile assignment, manning (or is that humanoid roboting?) the International Space Station.

Robonaut 2 is the first dexterous humanoid robot to make its way beyond the stratosphere, and it’s capable of working with astronauts during spacewalks. R2’s Twitter account proclaims it’s “designed to work side by side with humans, or go where the risks are too great for people.”

Recently awarded the title of the NASA Government Invention of the Year for 2014, R2’s initial role on the International Space Station will be experimental — demonstrating to engineers back on Earth just how dexterous robots in space can be. Eventually it’s hoped that as R2 proves its chops, and will graduate to station maintenance tasks such as vacuuming or cleaning filters. Further upgrades are needed for it to be capable of functioning in the vacuum of space, but performing repairs on the exterior of the station or simply helping astronauts as they work outside are also on R2’s radar.

NASA said on its website:

"Our challenge is to build machines that can help humans work and explore in space. Robonauts will expand our ability for construction and discovery. Central to that effort is a capability we call dexterous manipulation, embodied by an ability to use one's hand to do work, and our challenge has been to build machines with dexterity that exceeds that of a suited astronaut."