NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · space humanoid
Robonaut 1
A human-scale upper-body robot built to use the same tools and handrails as spacewalking astronauts, mostly by teleoperation. Its results fed directly into Robonaut 2.
- Price
- —Not published
- Height
- —Not published
- Weight
- —Not published
- Payload
- —Not published
- Speed
- —Not published
- Battery
- —Not published
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Why it matters
Its developers describe it as the first humanoid robot designed for space work, with five-fingered hands sized like a suited astronaut's.
Real-world use
Ground testbed only; later units were put on a Segway base (2003) and the Centaur wheeled base (2006).
Timeline
- First shown
- 1997
- Released
- Not yet
Maker
NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space CenterGovernment lab · founded 1961 · Houston, United StatesUS federal government (NASA)
How it stacks up
Against other humanoids that publish the figure. Pick a measure.
Robonaut 1 has more joints than 77% of the 236 other humanoids that publish a joints. Bars show the 7 closest in date.
Not published by the maker: height, weight, speed, payload, battery, price.
Public attention
A historic robot: no longer sold or in use, so it is not ranked against current humanoids.
- 639 views of its Wikipedia article in the last 90 days (Robonaut)
- 3 news stories from reputable press listed on this page
Measures how much people read and write about a robot, not how good it is. Measured 2026-10-13; same method for every robot. How it is measured
What’s inside
The parts the company has talked about publicly.
- Hands
- dexterous
- Movement
- Stationary · 43 joints
- AI & software
- Autonomous assistant behaviours that hand over and accept tools by reading body language, using a vision-based range silhouette-matching method to track the person and estimate tool pose (Diftler et al., 2003).
- Other details
- Human-scale, anthropomorphic upper body built with DARPA to work with tools and interfaces designed for space-suited astronauts (tether hooks, connectors, soldering). Variants R1A and R1B (portable, 2002) were paired with different lower bodies: a Zero-G leg for handrails, a two-wheeled Segway-based mobility platform (2003) and the four-wheeled Centaur 1 (2006).
Lineage
Every NASA Johnson Space Center with DARPA humanoid in order.
Made, sold and where
Unit counts are usually company figures; analysts often disagree.
- Price
- Not published
- How to get one
- No official buying page found
- Built
- R1A and R1B prototypes, with later R1C development (NASA).
- Sold or delivered
- Never sold
- Where it is sold or used
- United States (NASA Johnson Space Center); never flew to space
News
The latest 3, newest first. Summaries are ours; tap through for the original.
- GM and NASA sign agreement to develop the next Robonaut
NASA's history records that a Space Act Agreement signed in 2007 allowed GM and NASA to pool resources for the next-generation Robonaut.
NASA - Robonaut 1B integrated with a Segway base
NASA's development history dates Robonaut 1B's Segway integration to 2003.
NASA - NASA and DARPA start Robonaut
Johnson Space Center engineers began a humanoid able to use astronaut tools.
Tech Briefs
Sources
Figures come from a published paper. Every link below backs something on this page.
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