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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The Power-Driven Articulated Dummy is a strange aside in NASA's space race story, and now you can own it. The space suit testing robot is going up for grabs as part of RR Auctions' Remarkable Rarities Auction.
[...] The 104-kilogram (230-pound) PDAD was designed between 1963 and 1965 to be representative of the average American male. Its height was adjustable between 5'5" and 6'2", and it was equipped with a circulatory system of nylon tubes. Oil flowing through these tubes powered the 35 actuators, which allowed for the replication of the motion of the body with realistic force. Sensors on the robot's aluminium body could measure the forces applied by the prototype suits.
Only two of the robots were ever made before the program was shut down. The nylon circulatory system could not handle the hydraulic pressures required to move the robot without leaking. So NASA defunded the project and moved on.
One of the robots is owned by the Smithsonian. The other is missing an arm and some of its wiring is damaged, but it's still expected to fetch over $80,000. Online ore-bidding on the auction will commence on September 15, and the live auction itself will take place on September 26.
YouTube video here.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday September 06 2016, @11:54PM
Seems a shame to scrap a project because of a single, easily fixable design flaw.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Wednesday September 07 2016, @07:15AM
a single, easily fixable design flaw
Armored high pressure hoses existed for most of the 20th century, but they are awfully stiff. These problems could be real showstoppers. But there is another possible reason: the project was no longer needed. For example, one could simply hire a group of American males, between 5'5" and 6'2". They come eqipped with a circulatory system that requires no maintenance, and they certainly can replicate the motions of the body with realistic force. Robots are better if you need the same motions repeated millions of times, or forces measured with error below 0.1%. But if you only need to test the spacesuit, just embed pressure sensors into the clothing of the operator. It's not rocket science - even though it looks that way. An engineer does not perform a complex calculation if a simple math on the back of an envelope is sufficient. This project could have been just plan B, or even C, in case the plan A (human testers) does not work. Well, looks like it worked, as the robots were not used, and nobody cried too much about that.