It's been three years and Robonaut 2, NASA's humanoid robot currently inhabiting the International Space Station, has not done any substantial work yet, Yahoo News reported.
However, the space-age machine is being equipped and trained on telemedicine to eventually perform surgery, according to a doctor at Houston Methodist Hospital.
"The idea is for him to be the best medic, nurse and physician," Dr. Zsolt Garami told the BBC. "Our plan is to use Robonaut as a telemedicine doctor in remote areas."
As part of the STS-133 mission, Robonaut 2 arrived at the International Space Station in 2011 on space shuttle Discovery. The robot was a collaboration between NASA, General Motors and Oceaneering Space Systems engineers.
Having been restricted to mundane tasks such as "monitoring air flow from vents" and catching floating rolls of duct tape, the robot's work on the ISS has been limited up till this point, according to Yahoo News.
But Garami told the BBC that one of NASA's Robonauts is being groomed on Earth to "perform intricate medical operations like endovascular surgery."
"As Robonaut's name suggests, it is not alone. There are currently four versions of the android with more in development," BBC News reported. "One of them is being trained on Earth to find a pulse in a dummy's neck using ultrasound, then to stick a needle into a vein."
"You want to avoid hitting the carotid artery," Dr Garami said.
Precise work can be carried out by the robot, he said.
"Robonauts are controlled by humans at NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston," Yahoo News reported. "And one of the problems has been the lag time between command and response - which can be a couple of seconds or more, depending on the signal."
In order to eliminate the lag, NASA officials are contemplating the concept of having astronauts control Robonaut from space, side by side, according to the BBC.
