European Robotic Arm (ERA)

The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is a robotic arm to be attached to the Russian Segment of the International Space Station. It will be the first robot arm able to work on the Russian space station segments, and will supplement the two Russian Strela cargo cranes that are already installed on the Pirs module. The ERA has several interesting features. Most prominent are its ability to ‘walk’ around the exterior of the station under its own control, moving hand-over-hand between pre-fixed basepoints, and its ability to perform many tasks automatically or semi-automatically, thereby freeing its operators to do other work. ^{(Source: Thomson Reuters)}