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Unveiled in 2008 by Boston Dynamics, Big Dog is a military quadruped. It’s around the same size as a small donkey and capable of covering rough terrain while carrying equipment for the troops. Powered by a 15 horsepower go-kart engine it can walk up to 5 miles an hour. It can maintain its balance even when pushed or walking on icy ground.
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Arguably the most advanced robot ever built, the R2 is a joint NASA and General Motors project.
Developed by the Dexterous Robotics Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Texas, it can effortlessly lift 40lb in each of its arms. Using its 350 sensors, its hands are capable of 12 degrees of freedom compared to a human’s 22 whilst its wrists have two degrees compared to our three. Due to the touch sensors at the tips of the fingers it can calculate the flexibility of materials, which is incredibly rare in robots, and it can even operate an iPhone. It uses two full colour cameras inside its helmet to ‘see’ allowing it to recognise objects.
It was delivered to the International Space Station in February by the space shuttle Discovery, however it will have only just been turned on this month.
Engineers will be conducting tests to get an idea of how it performs under the unique conditions of space. They are looking specifically at the way it reacts to the weightlessness and radiation exposure.