Russia says it is building a humanoid robot to work in orbit on the International Space Station within two years, its first space robot in two decades.

The robot S-400, which will perform simple tasks such as screwing bolts and searching the spacecraft for damage, was Russia's "first step towards a robot cosmonaut," Oleg Saprykin, a senior official at Russia's space agency Roscosmos, said.

"Manipulators were designed for [the Soviet space shuttle] Buran and the Mir space station, but they did not get into space in the end," Saprykin said.

Andrei Nosov, an engineer at the firm designing S-400, said the robot would be able to send tactile feedback sensations to an operator on Earth, RIA Novosti reported Tuesday.

"The operator can virtually touch the surface. … It is indescribable," Nosov said.

S-400's trip to the ISS will be a "test" before "more interesting tasks," Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev said.

The United States has already sent an android, Robonaut, to the ISS, and Japan and Germany are also planning to send androids into space.