New Demo shows off what Robonaut can do!

Robonaut showing off

Most of us have been excited about Robonaut 2, NASA’s newest prototype of a robotic astronaut (did I need to clarify that?) ever since the project was introduced in 2010. Described as a “highly dexterous, anthropomorphic robot,” R2 was developed to handle a wide variety of tasks and tools, so that it can take over tasks aboard the International Space Station. The theory is that R2 will eventually be able to complete repetitive tasks both inside and outside the ISS, so the human astronauts have more time for complicated work.

As you can see in the new demo below, which was filmed by one of Electronic Products’ editors at NASA’s Johnson Space Center while on tour with Littelfuse’s Speed2Design contest winners, R2 is more than up to the challenge:

While Robonaut 2 was launched up to the ISS in February 2011, NASA has been building on it since—literally, they’ve finally built the little guy legs:

New Robonaut legs ready for action

While R2 is already performing admirably on the ISS, its torso is currently attached to a support post, which limits its ability to move about the station. Complete with vision and image recognition systems, tendon hands and sensor integrations, Robonaut 2 is made up of 50 new patent and patent-pending technologies, each of which could be responsible for new advances in numerous industries such as medicine and allows R2 the ability to help out its human companions with numerous jobs.

Just watch the video below of R2 lifting weights:

R2 is supposed to receive its brand-new space legs in 2014, where they will hopefully make its job much easier.