Robonaut's controls are straight out of popular science fiction. The controller wears a pair of stereoscopic goggles which display whatever Robonaut's camera eyes see, and wears a sensor-filled glove to control the hand and arm. Just moving the glove tells Robonaut how far to extend its arms or twist its wrist. Once the technology is refined, the glove will provide a sense of touch to the operator, Ambrose says. So far, operators have only their eyes to guide a hand that has about half the dexterity of a human hand.
Engineers measure dexterity by degrees of freedom.
Robonaut is well-suited since we have spacecraft for people, tools for people and all of the devices we take for granted in everyday life, like doorknobs. Though it was built with parts already rated to withstand the rigors of space travel, Robonaut won't see orbit for at least five years, Ambrose says. In space, Robonaut could prepare exterior worksites for astronauts, saving valuable spacewalk time for more important tasks. But if early success is any indicator, Robonaut's future applications are fairly limitless, Ambrose says. Ambrose envisions such an application for future planetary exploration missions.