maybe even one day go to mars. frankly, nasa will send robots ahead of the astronauts to the planet. these robots will start preparing the way for the human explorers. the first valkyrie has another mission. to compete in a robotic challenge sponsored by the department of defense. the robots at nasa johnson space flight center has been building is an extraordinary machine. of all the robots, it s the one with the most degrees of freedom, the most joints to move around. it s really quite sophisticated. i have high hopes for it. it s related to the robonaut, a robot on the space station but it doesn t have any legs. it can t move around. what the space flight center is trying to do, to see whether they can add that capability that the robonaut has now to use arms and perceive things with its head and add mobility to the platform. it s very exciting. 17 teams from around the
department of defense. the valkyrie robot that nasa has been building is an extraordinary machine. of all the robots we have there it s the one with the most degree of freedom, the most joints that can move around and it s really quite sophisticated and i have very high hopes for it. it s related to the robonaut which is a robot on the space station right now, but it doesn t have legs, it can t move around. so what nasa johnson space flight center is trying to see if they can add the capability that the robonaut has now and add some mobility to the platform. reporter: 17 teams from around the world will be competing in the trial where teams will attempt to guide their robots through physical tasks, that includes testing mobility, dexterity and perception. what is so exciting about this is that we re actually trying to make the future. i ve been reading science fiction books about robots ever since i was a little kid. much more recent stuff as well. and it s really an extraordinar
we re laymen here, what is a robonaut? it s a robotic astronaut. it helps astronauts do everyday tasks on the international space station and could potentially one day replace astronauts on the whole. it s a really, really cool, exciting experience down at nasa and it s one of my dreams. it was very, very cool. easton lacappelle your work is cool. 17 years old. when you win the nobel prize come back and show it off. definitely. thanks for joining us. thank you. folks do you have a big idea making a difference? do you know of a big idea making a difference? tell us about it. e-mail us to the address on your screen, bigidea.msnbc.com@nbcuni.com. could one of history s great mysteries finally be solved? after centuries of speculation a new excavation in florence,itily, might finally
robotic hand. the cool thing is there s a feedback system on it, the user has a sense of touch on what they re grasping. if they re picking up an egg with this, they know how hard they re grasping. are you starting to hear from people that might benefit from something like this? yes, definitely. every day, the main application is definitely prosthetics. one of the big words you said was affordable. i was able to make the whole system material wise this whole complete robotic arm up to the shoulder where this whole brain of controls system for about $400. i bet most of the phones out there cost more than that so i m definitely trying to give them as much functionality and for the lowest price point as possible. before i let you get out of here, as i nementioned, for lac of a better description you re at nasa camp and you ve been working with a robonaut project i understand this summer. in the simplest of terms because