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Robotics at JPL .

RoMan

A powerful robot designed to work in real-world environments

Robot Statistics

Mass

113.398 Kilograms

Length

1.26 Meters

Speed

4.5 m/s

Ability

Driving, Manipulating

Status

Completed (since 2020)

Animal Analog: Human

About RoMan

Roman was built to advance the ability of autonomous robots to interact with the wide variety of objects that they might encounter in human-scale environments, be they small and hard to grasp or large, heavy, and difficult to move. It uses its tracked base and array of sensors to navigate any relatively flat terrain, such as inside buildings, around urban streets, and through grassy outdoor areas. Its potential applications include search-and-rescue missions in disaster zones, where it could help clear rubble or lift and move obstacles. The RoMan platform was developed in collaboration with the CCDC Army Research Laboratory.

Dexterity

Multi-handed

Multi-handed Each of Roman’s two strong arms (based on RoboSimian’s limbs) are equipped with either a three-finger gripper to delicately grasp lighter, more complex objects or a JPL-designed “CamHand” that can drag debris as large as a tree limb out of the robot’s way.

Strength

Ripped Robot

RoMan’s arms are strong enough that it can do one-handed pushups, as its operators discovered when they forget to turn on collision avoidance and it drove its palm into the ground

Factoid

Multi-handed

Multi-handed Each of Roman’s two strong arms (based on RoboSimian’s limbs) are equipped with either a three-finger gripper to delicately grasp lighter, more complex objects or a JPL-designed “CamHand” that can drag debris as large as a tree limb out of the robot’s way.

Factoid

Ripped Robot

RoMan’s arms are strong enough that it can do one-handed pushups, as its operators discovered when they forget to turn on collision avoidance and it drove its palm into the ground

JPL Robotics Technologist Joseph Bowkett poses with RoMan.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

More Robots

Freeclimber: LEMUR 3

LLAMA

RoboSimian

NeBula-Husky

DuAxel

BRUIE

Rollocopter

NeBula-SPOT

A-PUFFER

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