How ISRO designed humanoid skull which will be used in Gaganyaan

How ISRO designed humanoid skull which will be used in Gaganyaan

Subject: Science and Tech

Sec: Space Sector

Context:

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) uncrewed Gaganyaan mission in 2025 will carry the female half humanoid Vyomitra (literally “space friend”). The design for Vyomitra’s skull, fashioned by ISRO’s Inertial Systems Unit  in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, was finalised recently.

What are humanoids?

• Humanoids (or half-humanoids) are robotic systems designed to resemble humans — Vyomitra comes with movable arms, a torso, a face, and a neck — and function autonomously in space.
• Robotic systems are used to assist astronauts in performing repetitive and/or dangerous tasks in space, like cleaning of solar panels or fixing faulty equipment located outside the spacecraft.
• This protects astronauts, and allows them to work on the scientific mission at hand.

Why will ISRO send a humanoid to space next year?

• Next year’s mission is primarily designed to be a technology demonstration of the Vyomitra.
• ISRO will evaluate the performance of the robot’s technology to measure the likely impacts of space travel on human beings, ahead of India’s first crewed mission planned for later in 2025.

How did ISRO design the humanoid skull for Vyomitra?

• The recently-designed Vyomitra skull will house the key components of the robot.
• It has been made using an aluminium alloy (AlSi10Mg) known for its high flexibility, light weight, heat resistance, and mechanical properties.
• This alloy is commonly used for making automotive engines and aerospace components.
• Crucially, the skull has been designed to be incredibly sturdy, capable of withstanding some extreme vibrational loads that are experienced during a rocket launch.
• The high strength of the aluminium alloy offers a yield strength of more than 220 MegaPascals (1 MPa = 1 million pascals).
• The humanoid skull model has dimensions of 200mm x 200mm, and weighs only 800 grams.
• AlSi10Mg is also amenable to the Additive Manufacturing (or AM) technique. This is how the humanoid skull was created.

Additive Manufacturing (or AM) technique:

• AM enables easy induction of lattice structures, as incorporated in the humanoid skull design.
• It helps in significant reduction of the overall weight of the final product. Unlike conventional manufacturing techniques, AM follows a process in which a desired part or product is created in a layered manner, a commonly deployed mechanism in 3D printing.

What are the tasks that Vyommitra will perform in space?

• The Vyommitra humanoid will test the ground for the human spaceflight.
• Once fully developed for the unmanned flight, she will be able to perform activities which will include,

1. Procedures to use equipment on board the spacecraft’s crew module such as safety mechanisms and switches,
2. Receiving and acting on commands sent from ground stations.

• The functions listed for the humanoid include attaining launch and orbital postures, responding to the environment, generating warnings, replacing CO2 canisters, monitoring the crew module, etc.
• Vyommitra will have lip movement synchronised to mimic speech.
• She can also double up as an artificial buddy to an astronaut – providing audio inputs on aspects like the health of the spacecraft during the launch, landing and orbital phases of the manned mission.
• She will report back to Earth on the changes occurring in the crew module during the spaceflight and return.
• This will enable ISRO to understand the safety levels required in the crew module that will eventually fly a human being.