Aye, robot. Scots humanoid that’s heading for Mars

IT could have walked straight out of a scene from Star Wars.

But this space- exploring humanoid robot is for real – and being developed in Scotland.

Unveiled yesterday on what fans call Star Wars Day – May 4 after the movie’s phrase ‘May the force be with you’ – scientists at the University of Edinburgh hope that in around five years their 6ft tall creation, which weighs a shade under 20 stone, will be ready to go to Mars.

Like the Star Wars character C-3PO, the robot walks on two legs and has jointed arms and hands that can grasp objects.

There the comparisons end, however. The humanoid machine taking shape north of the Border is much bigger and less friendly looking than its film world cousin – a product of engineering necessity rather than deliberate design.

Perhaps fittingly it has been named Valkyrie, after the female war spirits of Norse mythology.

But the robot is not designed for battle, only to act as a servant for human astronauts.

US space agency Nasa, which is collaborating on the project with the University of Edinburgh, intends to send Valkyrie to Mars before the first human explorers who are expected to journey to the Red Planet in the mid 2030s.

Professor Sethu Vijayakumar, director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, said: ‘Valkyrie is a huge scientific undertaking.

‘ We are l ooking f orward to tackling the many technical challenges involved in developing a large-scale humanoid robot, and pushing the state of the art in humanoid robotics. At t he moment the robot is a pretty basic shell which can walk up a set of three small steps and can reach out and grip something and pass it on to someone.

‘It reacts if you push against it, either swaying or taking a step back.

‘ The big challenge will be getting Valkyrie to interact with people; you have to have some pretty adaptable algorithms. The dream is to have something that can be a co-worker for astronauts on space missions, for example.’

Valkyrie is the only example of its kind in Europe and one of three prototypes in the world.

Nasa built the machine’s basic hardware before shipping it to the University of Edinburgh, which has a worldwide reputation for designing ‘smart’ robotic systems.

Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh are also involved in the project.

The humanoid design was chosen to make it easier for Valkyrie to work alongside people so that, for instance, no special ramps have to be provided to accommodate wheels.

‘We want systems that work in environments built for humans,’ said Professor Vijayakumar.

‘Also, small wheels sometimes get stuck and big wheels are not very manoeuvrable. It’s not by accident that humans were designed to be bipedal.’