Primate-inspired space robot to do astronauts’ dirty work on future stations

A team of ETH Zurich students has unveiled Helios, a primate-inspired four-armed robot built for zero gravity that can grip and “climb” around space stations to handle cargo and maintenance

A primate-inspired space robot named Helios has been developed by students. Helios, who was born at ETH Zurich (the Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland, has been designed to change how maintenance and cargo-handling could be done on future space stations.

Rather than copying the way humans walk, the prototype is built around the realities of microgravity, where legs and wheels have limited value. Helios has four arms instead of two arms and two legs, with the lower pair intended to function like an extra set of hands.

This means Helios can grip, pull itself through modules, and anchor to walls while the upper arms carry out more precise work.

It’s a design inspired by the way monkeys move through trees, which researchers say is a more efficient way to navigate a weightless, enclosed environment. To keep it light and agile, Helios uses a tendon-style system of cables and spools, with motors housed near the shoulders to reduce the mass of moving parts and improve dexterity, Futura Sciences reported.

The longer-term aim is to offload routine “housekeeping” jobs from astronauts, such as cleaning, repairs and shifting cargo, so crews can spend more time on science, including areas like cancer research and organ printing.

The team argues the approach could be cost-effective too, estimating an astronaut hour spent on routine maintenance at around $140,000 (£103,700) and suggesting robots could take on roughly 35% of these “housekeeping” jobs.

“The most expensive human beings on the planet are spending their time moving boxes. ORBIT’s argument is simple: that time belongs to science,” 22Astronauts Insights wrote as an analysis of the “Fokus-Rollout” at ETH Zurich.

“This frees up time for high-level research, ranging from reversing ageing and curing cancer to printing organs,” Orbit Robotics further states on its website.

On social media, boffins also reacted, as Lorem_Ipsumm SpaceThreads analyst, wrote: “Future space robots may look less like astronauts and more like mechanical spiders.”

The robot was built and designed as a student “focus project” by a team of 10 undergraduates over two semesters, and is due to be officially presented on Wednesday (May 27) at ETH Zurich’s Audimax during its “Fokus-Rollout”.

Orbit Robotics, the Zurich-based project behind Helios, based themselves on the idea that the robot can “climb” through station corridors in a primate-like way, using the extra hands to hold onto rails and walls while the upper arms carry out tasks.

While Helios is currently being shown as an Earth-tested prototype, it has been pitched as a robot intended for a future space launch to prove what it can do in orbit.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.