Russian Lunar Robot
As part of the conference held in Star City, a sample robot was demonstrated that will help Russian cosmonauts and their colleagues from other countries to explore the Moon. Work in this area is being carried out by specialists of Android Technology with the support of the Alpha Robotics Venture Foundation.
The first information about this robot for lunar work appeared in the spring of this year and even then it was said that it would be involved in the construction of the Russian lunar base. The robot is a kind of system that includes an anthropomorphic torso, a cargo wheeled platform and an aerial drone. Each of them will have its own control system controlled from the Ground. At the same time, all four wheels of the platform, which can be additionally equipped with a manipulator, will be independent and endowed with a separate electric motor.
Russian Lunar Robot
It is also clarified that this "lunar rover builder" will begin construction of a station on a natural satellite of the Earth even before the astronauts arrive on it, and it will be controlled by an operator using a VR helmet, as well as an exoskeleton, whose movements will be completely repeated by the machine, although the possibility of fully autonomous operation is also provided. Solar panels placed in the wheel part, supplemented with miniature "atomic" batteries based on Nickel-63, will be responsible for powering the entire system, and the robot will be dressed in a special spacesuit to protect against lunar regolith. However, it is unclear how it can be put on a cargo platform and on a UAV.
Max Antonov