berniceweir's journal

While NASA's official position is that Valkyrie is a genderless humanoid (as is Robonaut), the robot does have some features that we would call unmistakably female. For example, there's the name of the robot. "Valkyrie" (the roboticists call it "Val" for short) refers to the female figures in Norse mythology who decided which warriors fought valiantly enough in battle to be taken to Valhalla when they died. A valkyrie is either completely supernatural, or a human with supernatural powers, either of which are appropriate for JSC's superhuman robot. And then, of course, there's the extended chest area, which looks the way it does (at least in part) because it houses the linear actuators that allow the robot to rotate at the waist, while also providing some protection if the robot falls forward.
If it turns out that Val was deliberately designed from the start with female characteristics, that's a very bold (and very laudable, in our opinion) choice that the JSC team has made. Most robots, especially humanoid robots, are generally viewed as either genderless or male, and this is especially true when it comes to robots designed for utility, as the DRC robots are. In December, Valkyrie will be competing against robots like ATLAS and THOR, which are unambiguously male names that happen to evoke ideas of strength and power. But why can’t robots with unambiguously female names evoke strength and power as well? Considering how many girls are interested in STEM in general and robotics specifically, it's about time that someone decided to say, "hey, look, robots can be big and powerful and awesome and female, all at the same time."