NASA’s first humanoid robot Valkyrie is being tested at offshore energy facilities in Australia

NASA says the knowledge gained from this mission will potentially be used for NASA’s Artemis mission and for other Earth-based robotics purposes.

NASA’s humanoid robot Valkyrie is starting a new mission in Australia.

Valkyrie was delivered to Western Australia on 6 July to test its capabilities at Australian energy giant Woodside Energy in Perth.

The company plans to deploy Valkyrie for remote care of its unmanned and offshore facilities to increase safety for both its personnel and the environment.

“We are pleased to begin the next phase of development and testing of advanced robotic systems that have the potential to make a positive impact on life on Earth by allowing safe operation in hazardous environments,” said Sean Azimi, skilled robotics team lead at NASA Johnson. keep.” said in an announcement.

“These demonstrations will evaluate the current potential of advanced robots to extend access to humans and help humanity work safely anywhere,” Azimi said.

As part of a partnership agreement, Woodside Energy will provide data and feedback to NASA, according to a recent NASA announcement.

NASA hopes to apply the knowledge gained to “accelerate the maturation of robotic technology”.

The space agency also implies that lessons learned from this mission could be used for NASA’s Artemis mission and for other Earth-based robotics purposes.

What is Valkyrie?

Valkyrie is NASA’s first bipedal humanoid robot.

Its name is derived from Norse mythology where the name literally means “chooser of the slain”.

Standing 1.8 meters tall and weighing 125 kilograms, Valkyrie is designed to perform critical tasks in hazardous environments for humans, both in space and on Earth.

NASA says that testing Valkyrie’s development on Earth will ultimately contribute to current and future robotics and automation developments for use in space.

For example, NASA hopes to use Valkyrie in long-term workplaces and habitats on the Moon that will be established as part of future Artemis missions, even when astronauts are not physically present.

‘Important’ remote control capabilities

Since 2016, NASA has been working on improving remote control technologies and developing fully autonomous robots as the time delay in communication between Earth and Mars makes the robots difficult to control.

NASA believes that Valkyrie and other advanced mobile robots could be important tools in helping humans remotely supervise dangerous work and offload dull and repetitive tasks, allowing humans to perform higher tasks, including deploying and maintaining the robots. May be able to work on level tasks.

With remotely piloted mobile robots such as Valkyrie, astronauts may be able to stay off the ground and remotely operate critical activities such as inspection and maintenance of infrastructure and plants.

To deliver Valkyrie, Johnson’s skilled NASA robotics team traveled to Woodside Headquarters in Perth, Western Australia. The team designed the Valkyrie robot and trained with the Woodside team on its operation, NASA said.