Yes, Houston: Robonaut Does Have a "Voice"
Robonaut-2 Says “Hello world” in American Sign Language From the ISS (video)
Keith’s note: This afternoon NASA’s Robonaut-2 said “hello world” in American Sign Language (ASL) from the International Space Station. I have been told that the idea for this was sparked by an earlier posting of mine on NASAWatch. Being a former professional Sign Language interpreter, this is pretty cool. This is not the first time Robonaut has signed from space (can’t seem to find NASA videos of this online). In February @AstroRobonaut tweeted: “Did you catch that? I don’t have a voice, but I sent you a message — Hello world … in sign language!” What is odd about this tweet (by a human) is the fact that Robonaut does indeed have a “voice” and he speaks (understandably) in a language used by millions of people every day. PAO might want to keep that in mind in the future.
Space Droids Using Sign Language?, earlier post
Lets hope it doesn’t pull a HAL 9000.
Keith,
How would Robonaut ‘sign’ the sentence “This is confusing”? By putting his finger next to his ear and twirling it? Or can he just shake his golden head until it falls off his cyborg neck?
Explain why this Robonaut activity cannot simply be done on Earth? What capability on the Space Station is essential to demonstrating the value of Dr. Robonaut here? The location? weightlessness? radiation? having discussions in a vacuum? the distance from politicians? the possibility of Robonaut meeting aliens that are unable to speak or hear?
Seeing as the U.S. has no current ability to get a human on orbit, maybe robotics is where it’s at.
He would sign “this is confusing” in ASL. Or are you just trying to make fun of ASL?
“Explain why this Robonaut activity cannot simply be done on Earth?”
It is intended as a test-bed for robotic teleoperation on the ISS. First internally, taking some workload off of ISS astronauts, with the eventual aim of replacing much of the routine EVA activity with teleoperated vacuum-tolerant EVA versions of Robonaut. Which would be a useful tool for a long-duration BEO mission.
(That said, I’m not sure why the testing is so slow. I would have thought it would be fairly continuous since it doesn’t require participation by the ISS crew.)
Paul,
That’s exactly the explanation I was hoping to read. Thanks.
I’d think a considerable fraction of robotic development could be performed on Earth. But at a point the effort would need to transition to the ISS, since algorithms and control systems development for manipulating and handling objects in weightlessness would require the robotics to be in-situ, i.e. – you can mimic weightlessness in a tank of water, but only to a watered-down extent.
Purely a guess: The testing may appear to be slow because the efforts are just beginning and in all likelihood the program may be tightly scoped and underfunded, as usual.
The videos of Robonaut in action look techy, but a bit lame. The communications people need to show how Robonaut will enable on orbit operations (EVA activity) in a highly effective manner as the effort goes forward. And it is still not very clear why ASL is the main gig with Robonaut. Throw Robonaut outside and have him build some giant Lego assembly or an ISS appendage. Soon.
ASL (I am a former professional ASL interpreter) can require extreme dexterity. So why not use an established language (series of motions) as one means to test Robonaut’s dexterity – and do a little EPO at the same time? ASL is not “the main gig” with Robonaut. NASA has never said that – anywhere.
I have three kids that were fluent in ASL before they could even talk (all at under 2 yrs old), so sure, I’m good with ASL and understand your explanation.
So then I’ll reverse. Why aren’t robotics and why isn’t Robonaut funded far more vigorously?
Do we need to explain to some funding source as to why they need to “sign on the bottom line”? (pun intended).
Train Roboguy to have the dexerity of a concert pianist and win the DWTS mirror ball trophy and then get him (or her) up on orbit doing something productive.
Not a lot of comments on this article. I suspect most people are busy learning how to sign “I, for one, would like to welcome our new robot overlords…”