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Half Man, Half Horse, Full Robot

Everyday, there’s a new robotic invention that unnecessarily enters the market to “make our lives easier.” So I figured, why not spotlight one of those every day. Since robots are no longer a fantasy we only see on TV or in books, let’s combine robotics with something that’s actually a mythical creature.

Meet the Centauro robot. Designed and developed in Italy at the IIT (Institute of Italian Technology…but in Italian) this monstrous mythical beast stands 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) tall and weighs 93 kilograms (205 pounds). It’s head is a camera equipped with a Lidar scanner so it can sense its surroundings and report them back visually to its human operators.

So what’s the point of building a centaur-bot rather than just making fantasy become reality? Well, Centauro is designed to function in man-made environments. Its hybrid duality make it versatile for maneuvering objects and pick up human made tools. It’s ultimate goal is to be a disaster-relief aid. For example, it could go into a crumbled building to remove debris and save humans, a situation far too dangerous for regular first responders.

While the current model seems very limited and is tele-operated, inventors are aiming at giving it four autonomy through artificial intelligence. In addition to Centauro, we’ve included a playlist of other funky robots above in order to get a taste for the new tech of tomorrow.

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