NASA sends of its humanoid robot “Valkyrie” for tests that will show the robot’s ability to remotely service autonomous and marine power plants.

The tests will be carried out by the company woodside energy in Australia, with the energy company paying NASA’s expenses while the aerospace agency works to “develop mobile remote control capabilities” to service unmanned installations.

In return, Woodside Energy will test the robot’s software and provide data to NASA that the agency can use to accelerate the development of its robotics to work remotely from Earth when the robot is on Mars or the Moon without astronauts.

The tasks of the robot will include inspection and maintenance of infrastructure, as well as care for plants grown in outer space. NASA hopes that the Valkyrie will be able to handle monotonous work, freeing up people’s time for more complex tasks.

NASA plans to use Valkyrie’s experience at the Woodside facilities to study how best to design robots to operate in messy and dangerous environments like those found on the Moon in long-term workspaces and living quarters that will be built as part of future Artemis missions. .

The Valkyrie, also known as the R5, is about 183cm tall and has been in development for 10 years. The Valkyrie is powered by two Intel Core i7 processors and a 1.8 kWh battery. The robot can work independently for about an hour.

The main sensor is a modified sensor model (laser, 3D stereo and video) Multisense SL from Carnegie Robotics, which allows you to create point clouds based on IR structural lighting, and the torso and head of the humanoid are equipped with cameras for detecting hazards.

Numerous elastic rotary actuators ensure smooth movements. Valkyrie has a simplified hand design, consisting of only three fingers and a thumb, and her head has 3 degrees of freedom. The robot’s designers have also added anthropomorphic features to it, with the hope that the robot will appear more human and not just a piece of metal during lonely long missions.