I am standing before one of the most advanced robots in the world and am awestruck and disoriented by its humanoid form. Part Transformer, part Star Wars stormtrooper and with hands that look like they can crush beer cans, at 1.8 metres tall and weighing 120 kilograms, NASA鈥檚 Valkyrie robot is an intimidating figure.
But it is the face that most transfixes me. Where the eyes, mouth and nose should be is a cavity filled with an array of whirring and flashing sensors, including advanced lidar detectors that give the robot both a three-dimensional view of the world and an impenetrable, no-nonsense expression.
That is apt, because while current fashionable advances in AI, like ChatGPT, aim to automate office work and creativity, the people behind Valkyrie are more focused on dangerous jobs that are too risky for humans 鈥� both on Earth and, one day, in space.
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NASA has five Valkyrie robots around the world, but the one I am visiting today is at the Karda facility in Perth, Western Australia, a lab owned by Woodside Energy, an Australian oil and gas company. With its liquified natural gas plants and large-scale offshore infrastructure, the global energy giant makes the perfect partner for exploring how humanoid robots could be sent into inhospitable environments to complete dangerous tasks.
Valkyrie鈥檚 two arms and legs and complex manipulation are particularly impressive, says Woodside鈥檚 , who, like the rest of the team, shortens the robot鈥檚 name to Val and calls it 鈥渟he鈥�.
鈥淭hat is unique with Val,鈥� says Pennock, 鈥淎nd I think she鈥檚 probably the most complex 鈥� the digital integration of her systems, the sensor technology, that level of complexity. I don鈥檛 think we really see that in any of our other robotic platforms.鈥�
Valkyrie is currently being put through its paces at the Karda facility so researchers can work out what it would take to actually get a humanoid robot onto offshore facilities or into space. At first, I just watch as the robot is controlled via virtual reality, walking, spinning and bending with steady dexterity. Even so, I note the straps dangling from a gantry on the ceiling 鈥� at a conservative cost of over $2 million, NASA doesn鈥檛 want Valkyrie falling over.
Then, it is my turn. One of the team calls me over and fits me with a VR headset. I open my eyes and the room before me has been transformed to a digital rendering of the laboratory. In front of me I can see a digital Valkyrie. On the floor there is a digital hexagon and I am instructed to walk towards it. As soon as I am on the hexagon, my body looks and feels like it has merged into the robot鈥檚. Its arms become my arms and all of me is subsumed within it. In each of my hands I am holding a controller from which, in the digital-scape, emerges two laser-like beams pointing to the ceiling.
I am instructed to say the command to release the robot into my control. But, with Valkyrie鈥檚 name origins in Norse mythology, I misunderstand when Woodside robotics engineer Andrew Sherry instructs me to say 鈥淭hor everything鈥�. I am baffled until he realises my confusion. 鈥淭-H-A-W, thaw everything,鈥� he says, again.
Uttering the words, it is as if I can feel the robot wake up 鈥� a sensation that the researchers describe as 鈥渞iding the skin鈥�. I tentatively begin to move my limbs and can see the movement reflected in the virtual reality environment. Andrew confirms that the robot, standing a few metres in front of me, is also following suit in the physical world. I move my head, crouch or bend over and so does Valkyrie.
After a few minutes I begin to feel more confident and dip my head in a full bow but, in my exuberance, I have bent a little too far for the gantry straps and Andrew tells me to straighten up. He asks me to say 鈥渇reeze everything鈥� and as soon as I repeat the command I can sense the decoupling of Valkyrie from me and I step backwards, feeling myself emerge from its body. With that, the session is over and the robot is moved by trolley to a secure storage room.
So have I just had a preview of what it will be like to explore space in a robot body? Not exactly, explains at NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He says that none of the five Valkyries will ever go to space, but future robots that incorporate some or all of their technology will. In fact, while my time controlling Valkyrie felt like a high-tech experience, the robots are now over a decade old and the pace of development in the field has exploded dramatically, meaning the Valkyrie models may soon be retired, says Azimi.
One issue is that Valkyrie was built to walk in the full gravity of Earth, but a zero-gravity version probably wouldn鈥檛 need legs. Instead, the focus of the next generation will be on safety and reliability because the margin for error in space or even harsh environments on Earth is much smaller. Those who deploy humanoid robots need to be absolutely certain, for example, that they won鈥檛 need a gantry to stop them falling over.
鈥淭he physical capability of Valkyrie is really strong, but where everybody鈥檚 trying to catch up right now, including current industry, where the billions of dollars are pouring in, is the intelligence and the adaptability, the resilience, the safety and predictability right to where we can have a robot that can always take the correct action,鈥� says Azimi.
While NASA built Valkyrie in-house, he says its successor will probably be the result of a challenge set by NASA for others. 鈥淭hen we will allow the various universities and commercial companies and international partners to innovate,鈥� says Azimi.
For example, he says, knowledge gained from the Valkyrie programme combined with next-generation innovations from other research and industry teams around the world will be directed to solving problems like gathering material from the surface of the south pole of the moon.
As my time with Valkyrie begins to wrap up, I have a sense that I have witnessed a technology that is the beginning of a future that hasn鈥檛 yet quite arrived. My mind is racing at the potential for the science fiction future that fully fledged humanoid robots might bring. Imagine a technology that forges large language models like ChatGPT with Valkyrie鈥檚 manual dexterity, along with recent advances such as a robot overlaid with living human skin. Can a human-like robot be that far away?
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 possible that you could have an artificial human, something like Commander Data from Star Trek, but I think it鈥檚 a long way off right now,鈥� says Azimi. He says it is easier to envisage something like Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a computer voice embedded into a spaceship鈥檚 systems, than a fully realised android.
In the meantime, Valkyrie and her successors will still have important work to do in Western Australia, says Azimi.
鈥淲e spend a good amount of time looking all around the Earth for challenging environments that are representative of space exploration challenges,鈥� he says, and Woodside鈥檚 facilities are a great proving ground.
鈥淵ou can see sort of natural parallels to a future lunar or Mars base and that gives us the kind of proving ground in a realistic environment where we鈥檙e not making things up,鈥� says Azimi. 鈥淭his is real.鈥�
