posted 02-16-2018 08:10 AM               

The crew prepared and stowed Robonaut in preparation for return on SpaceX-14. Robonaut is a humanoid robot designed with the versatility and dexterity to manipulate hardware, work in high risk environments, and respond safely to unexpected obstacles. It is comprised of a torso with two arms and a head, and two legs with end effectors that enable the robot to translate inside the ISS by interfacing with handrails and seat tracks.

Mark Vande Hei and I packed up Robonaut for return to Earth for repairs and refurb. We look forward to his return.

posted 02-16-2018 08:13 AM               

...in 2014, NASA decided to go forward with a complex and risky upgrade. The Robonaut sent to the ISS was a torso with a pair of arms and head, and now NASA wanted to add a pair of legs. The idea was to give Robonaut more mobility inside the station. The elongated, wiggly legs would work almost as a secondary pair of arms, allowing the robot to move itself around the station by holding on to hand rails, significantly adding to its capability.

The hardware upgrade, however, didn’t go according to plan, and repeated attempts to fix a persistent problem have failed. For the last several years, Robonaut has been almost entirely disabled, and publicly available ISS status reports show that the last time the robot completed a full research task was December of 2013. This week, NASA announced that it is bringing Robonaut back to Earth to be fixed.

posted 05-07-2018 12:45 AM               

Robonaut returns to Earth for repairs after seven years on space station

The world's first humanoid robot in space splashed down on Earth on Saturday (May 5), 57 years to the day after the first American astronaut did the same.

Robonaut 2, or R2 for short, returned to the planet aboard SpaceX's fourteenth Dragon cargo spacecraft to land from the International Space Station. Unlike Alan Shepard, who came away from his 1961 Mercury spaceflight unscathed, R2 came home damaged and partially disassembled.