Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (which is why I'm called "Dextre" for short!)

March 16, 2008 (That's the day I was assembled on board the International Space Station on by spacewalkers Richard Linnehan and Mike Foreman.)

Space handyman and guinea pig for testing new robotics technologies

Here, there and everywhere on the International Space Station

Canadian Space Agency

MDA in Brampton, Ontario

3,7 metres (12 feet, or about as high as two humans!)

2,37 metres (7,7 feet)
 

3,35 metres (11 feet)

1560 kg (3440 lbs)

I think I began my education at the School of Hard Knocks! I had a bit of a start when I first came to auto-cognizance: I woke up on the International Space Station while zooming around the Earth at almost 28000 km/h at 350 km in altitude! But I didn't have much time to take in the sights since I had to get to work right away. Like any newborn, I had to learn to see properly, be able to tell my left hand from my right, and figure out why I was hearing voices in my head (it turned out to be the crew of the Space Station and mission controllers on the ground!). I was lucky, though, since I had almost all the information I needed to get up-to-speed quickly. Now, whenever I have to learn something new, it just takes me a minute or two and *blink,* I get it and am ready to go. Otherwise, I get on-the-job training. My mentors are all the astronaut spacewalkers who have gone before and have laid out the path for robots like me.

I'm the most sophisticated space robot ever built (blush!)

Waiting for Mission Control to say, "Dextre, we have a problem..."

Be the grand daddy for all future dexterous space robots