Remote manipulator

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title: "Remote manipulator" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["robotic-manipulation", "nuclear-technology"] description: "Device for controlling a hand-like mechanism" topic_path: "general/robotic-manipulation" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Device for controlling a hand-like mechanism ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/NTS_-_EMAD_Facility_009.jpg" caption="Area 25]] of the [[Nevada Test Site"] ::

A remote manipulator, also known as a telefactor, telemanipulator, or waldo (after the 1942 short story "Waldo" by Robert A. Heinlein), is a device which, through electronic, hydraulic, or mechanical linkages, allows a hand-like mechanism to be controlled by a human operator. The purpose of such a device is usually to move or manipulate hazardous materials for reasons of safety, similar to the operation and play of a claw crane game.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Pentecost-johnson-ellington-gore-ornl.jpg" caption="[[Cayce Pentecost]], [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], [[Buford Ellington]] and [[Albert Gore Sr]] operating mechanical hands at a [[hot cell]] at [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]], on October 19, 1958"] ::

In 1945, the company Central Research Laboratories was given the contract to develop a remote manipulator for the Argonne National Laboratory. The intent was to replace devices which manipulated highly radioactive materials from above a sealed chamber or hot cell, with a mechanism which operated through the side wall of the chamber, allowing a researcher to stand normally while working.

The result was the Master-Slave Manipulator Mk. 8, or MSM-8, which became the iconic remote manipulator seen in newsreels and movies, such as The Andromeda Strain or THX 1138.

Robert A. Heinlein claimed a much earlier origin for remote manipulators. He wrote that he got the idea for the "waldos" used in his story after reading a 1918 article in Popular Mechanics about "a poor fellow afflicted with myasthenia gravis... [who] devised complicated lever arrangements to enable him to use what little strength he had." A 2021 article in Science Robotics on robots, science fiction, and nuclear accidents discusses how the science fiction waldos are now a major type of real-world robots used in the nuclear industry.

References

References

1. [http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=23 Technovelgy Science Fiction Dictionary: waldo]
2. "CRL history".
3. "Telemanipulator page".
4. Heinlein, Robert A.. (1957). "The Science Fiction Novel". Advent.
5. (2021). "Robots, science fiction, and nuclear accidents". AAAS.

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