See also: NASA鈥檚 android astronaut assistant prepares for launch
A humanoid robot could be walking on the moon 鈥� and drawing the Japanese flag on its surface 鈥� by 2015, according to a plan proposed by a group of Japanese companies. Experts say wheeled or many-legged robots would be easier to operate on the moon鈥檚 uneven terrain, but backers of the proposal say a two-legged android would make a bigger splash in the public imagination.
The plan was announced last week by a small cooperative of companies in Osaka called Astro-Technology , which in January 2009.
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The group hopes that its robot, dubbed Maido-kun, could hitch a ride to the moon with a set to be launched by the Japanese space agency JAXA in about five years, according to the newspaper.
The newspaper said that JAXA had previously opted against sending a bipedal robot to the moon because its footing would not be steady on the sandy lunar surface. But SOHLA president Hideo Sugimoto countered that a walking robot would be more inspiring than a wheeled rover, adding that Maido-kun would draw the Japanese flag on the moon鈥檚 surface.
鈥淲e decided on a human-like robot because it鈥檚 more fascinating and stimulating for us,鈥� Sugimoto said, according to the Daily Yomiuri. 鈥淲e鈥檒l make an attractive robot to carry our dreams to the universe.鈥�
Standing up
The project, estimated to cost about $10 million to develop, will not be a walk in the park. Designing a robot that can balance and move on two legs will be a major challenge, says of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia. 鈥淗uman beings are relatively unstable, and when designing robots for unpredictable terrain, three legs are better than two.鈥�
If the robot were to fall over, it could have trouble getting up again, says , a roboticist at MIT.
Human-sized robots have been designed to pick themselves up on Earth, but 鈥渢his has not been demonstrated robustly鈥�, he told 麻豆传媒. On the other hand, the moon鈥檚 gravity is only one-sixth as strong as Earth鈥檚, so 鈥渢hings might be easier there鈥�, he says.
Autonomous design
To stay upright, the robot would have to accurately detect and respond to unexpected changes in the terrain 鈥� something humans do instantaneously.
Because communication signals take a few seconds to travel between Earth and the moon, there is a real danger that the robot could fall over and break if it had to wait for commands from ground controllers on Earth, says , a robotics and sensor researcher at Australia鈥檚 national science agency, CSIRO. 鈥淚t鈥檒l have to be fairly autonomous,鈥� he told 麻豆传媒.
, a robotics designer at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, says the mission concept is 鈥減retty cool鈥�, but says a more stable, four-legged design could also grab the public鈥檚 attention. 鈥淚f I were [doing it], I鈥檓 building a robotic dog to go up there.鈥�
Motoko Kakubayashi of the Science Media Centre of Japan assisted with translations for this article
