I was fortunate to get to see Robonaut in its home lab on two separate occasions 2006 - 2008. It is/was mainly a platform for research in teleoperation and han

I was fortunate to get to see Robonaut in its home lab on two separate occasions 2006 - 2008. It is/was mainly a platform for research in teleoperation and hand-gripping. I was confused when I first saw a news item, years ago, about it going up to the ISS, because while it was forward looking to this purpose, it didn't seem like the prototype itself was intended for this. I think they'd have done some things differently if they knew the prototype itself was going to go up - probably make it smaller and lighter for one. But do remember, when this was started was before things like the Raspberry Pi, so a lot of components (computers, cameras, actuators) were bigger then than they would be now. It was interesting to see the design evolve. For instance the first-generation Robonaut hand was based on human anatomy. One of the researchers spoke to hand surgeons and even observed real surgeries to learn about this anatomy. So the fingers of the first-generation hand were endoskeleton-supported. But on my second visit I got to see parts from a version of the hand they had just (or were just about to) put in. These were more of an exoskeleton design, like a loop/outline of each segment of a finger. (Unlike an insect exoskeleton, these segments were not fully enclosed; think of like a 2D loop not 3D tube.) Apparently the second design gave more room to put sensors in the fingers (and, I imagine, protected the sensors better). Once the glove is on the hand, you can't tell the difference.