(Daily News Scan - DNS English) Vyommitra : First Half Humanoid Into Space
Before the first space manned mission of India, ISRO has planned to send a half-humanoid- Vyommitra into space. Vyommitra is a “half-humanoid” being developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Vyommitra', is a 'lady robot' in the unmanned Gaganyaan spacecraft. She is the prototype for a half-humanoid that will eventually fly to space on an unmanned mission later this year.
Vyommitra is a humanoid, which basically is a robot with the appearance of a human being. Vyommitra is a combination of two words, (vyoma = space, mitra = friend). This lady robot is also being called a half-humanoid because of her appearance. She will only have a head, two hands and a torso, and will not have lower limbs.
Like all other robots, a humanoid’s functions are determined by the computer systems. The Vyommitra humanoid will test the ground for the human spaceflight. She will be able to perform procedures to use equipment on board the spacecraft’s crew module such as safety mechanisms and switches, as well as receiving and acting on commands sent from ground stations. Vyommitra can monitor module parameters, alert astronauts and perform life support operations. It will simulate the exact human functions in space; it will check whether the systems are right. Along with that, attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing carbon dioxide canisters, operating switches, monitoring of the crew module, receiving voice commands, responding via speech (bilingual) are the functions listed for the humanoid.
Vyommitra will have lip movement synchronized to mimic speech. She can also be an artificial buddy to an astronaut, providing audio inputs on aspects like the health of the spacecraft during the launch, landing and orbital phases of the manned mission. She will report back to Earth on the changes occurring in the crew module during the spaceflight and return, such as heat radiation levels. It will help ISRO to understand the safety levels required in the crew module that will eventually fly a human being.
Previously, there have been many space missions featuring dummy astronauts. Also there have been many featuring humanoid robots like Vyommitra. In the recent past, in 2019, a dummy astronaut when a mannequin called Ripley was flown on the Dragon crew capsule, launched on a SpaceX Falcon rocket, and sent to the International Space Station. Ripley was fitted with sensors to measure forces that act during a space flight as part of SpaceX preparations to send a human into space in 2020 for NASA.
Kirobo, a humanoid robot astronaut built in Japan, was flown to the ISS along with the first Japanese commander of the ISS, Koichi Wakata, to serve as the astronaut’s assistant in conducting experiments on the space station. It was equipped with technologies such as speech recognition, facial recognition, and language processing and telecommunication capabilities.
A Russian humanoid robot, Fedor, was also sent to the ISS in 2019 to carry out mechanical functions on the space station.
ISRO,will send the humanoid into space before sending any humans. Other countries that have successfully launched humans into space did so after having used animals for conducting tests of their rockets and crew recovery systems, while ISRO will use the humanoid to test the efficacy of its GSLV Mk III rocket to transport a human to space and back. The humanoid is under development at a robotics laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. The first unmanned mission with the human-rated rocket is planned for December 2020. The crew module system, too, is under development, and ISRO will attempt to carry out several tests over the next few months to launch and recover the module using new test launch rockets, which too are under development.
