Robots are finally beginning to leave the lab and head out into the real world. By robots, I don't mean the ones that are generally used in factories or those toy robots that kids play with. I mean robots that we see in movies and that can help us in our day to day activities.
It will still take some more time though until they can be mass produced for the average person. For now, they are built more for specialised use cases than general ones. You might have heard of robots being used as waiters, bartenders, in the military and even in space.
They help us do things that the limitations of our biological bodies do not allow us to. One prime example is that of space which is a completely hostile place for us humans and having a robot that can do any number of tasks for us is the perfect use case.
Although we have sent robots in space before, Russia's semi-autonomous humanoid robot called Fedor has to be the most advanced yet and is about to be sent to the ISS. If the name Fedor sounds familiar to you, it might be because you saw a video of this robot firing guns last year.
Integral Part of Space Future
Fedor looks like an early version of something that we are usually shown in science fiction movies but rest assured that it is a highly advanced robot capable of performing some specific tasks autonomously. It can grab objects, balance itself, get back up after falling, do push ups, shoot guns and even drive a car.
In addition to the autonomous tasks it will perform on the ISS, some other tasks will require the help of a human operator here on Earth. What is impressive is that it can be controlled by a human wearing an exoskeleton suit which acts as its remote control, giving the wearer a more intuitive way to control the robot.
Robots like these will increasingly become an integral part of our space related activities as we look to establishing bases on the Moon and also on Mars. In fact, highly advanced robots could be sent before us to set everything up for our eventual arrival.
Russia expects that robots like Fedor will help it develop future bases and settlements on the Moon or any other place we choose to settle on and so this experiment on the ISS is of real importance.
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