The original Robonaut 2 (R2) is at the NASA-JSC in Houston, TX (Left). The second R2, originally intended for GM, ended up in the International Space Station (Right). There are two more R2’s, a flight copy of the one in the ISS, which is in Houston and the newest R2 which is at the GM Global R&D Center in Warren, MI.

GM-NASA Robonauts & Leandro. Photo courtesy of NASA.

R2 was launched up to the International Space Station (ISS) on 2/24/2011 as part of the STS-133 mission aboard the Shuttle Discovery, fulfilling a 15 year dream to put a humanoid robot into space. The humanoid dexterous robot platform R2 was jointly developed by NASA and General Motors under a cooperative Space Act Agreement to develop a robotic assistant that can work alongside humans, whether they are astronauts in space or workers at GM manufacturing plants on Earth. The picture below shows the Shuttle Discovery just hours before the launch to the ISS. R2 was well packed inside ready to be subjected to G-forces up to three times normal gravity and then getting to the lowest gravity a humanoid robot has ever encountered, Zero-G.

Shuttle Discovery, STS-133 Mission. Photo courtesy of NASA.

R2 Goodbye to Discovery. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The following is the Robonaut 2 GM-NASA Mission Patch. Notice the two little stars in the map representing Houston (JSC) and Michigan (GM).

R2 Mission Patch

Finally, here is the GM R2 at the Advanced Robotics Group Laboratory, Manufacturing Systems Research Lab, General Motors Global R&D Center, Warren, MI.

Leandro and R2C2