The crew of the International Space Station on Tuesday switched on a humanoid robot, “Robonaut 2,” or R2, better known by its Twitter handle “AstroRobonaut.” You can watch the crew booting up the robot right now live via a Ustream. So far, they’ve managed to get it to move its arms, which approach a human’s in terms of dexterity.
The “state of the art highly dexterous anthropomorphic robot” was designed by General Motors and NASA to help ISS astronauts perform “simple, repetitive or dangerous” tasts in space, such as changing air filters in the station. It was ferried aboard the station almost a year ago, on February 24, 2011.
But for all those who fear that R2 heralds the coming of a robot apocalypse, don’t fret — the robot only consists of a head, torso and two arms, and is currently affixed to the inside of the space station, although future versions may allow for greater mobility.
Late Update: Robonaut 2 has just tweeted about its peaceful intentions in response to a follower’s prediction that the robot would attack.
As novelist Sean Ferrell tweeted: “This Live feed of the activation of @AstroRobonaut is gonna be nuts when it grabs the astronaut and rips his arms off.”
Robonaut 2 responded: “I wouldn’t do that! I’m a friendly robot!”
