FEDOR or Feodor (Russian: Фёдор) (a Russian given male name and an acronym for “final experimental demonstration object research”) is a Russian humanoid robot that replicates movements of a remote operator as well as performs a limited set of actions autonomously.Originally it was called Avatar and was funded by Ministry of Emergency Situations for rescue operations but later its intended use was expanded to space operations. The new name was given by Dmitry Rogozin. FEDOR is intended to be a platform for development of a series of robots although the first model was often called Fedor in media.

In April 2017, a video of FEDOR shooting guns caused a media alarm. Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, insisted they are not creating a Terminator. After the video was posted, one of the parts suppliers cancelled their relationship with the project.

On 22 August 2019, a FEDOR robot was launched to the International Space Station. The plan is for it to spend one week and one half aboard the orbital outpost. The model going to space was given the name Skybot F-850. 

On 27 August 2019, FEDOR robot successfully docked with the Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS) at 6:08am Moscow time (3:08 UTC), several minutes earlier than initially planned.

References