Centauro the robot hopes to play role in disaster relief work

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Centauro the robot, with four legs, a short torso and two upper arms, edges forward with Tai chi-like grace before lowering its arms, lifting up a six-kilogram block and effortlessly moving it out of the way.

The robot, modeled on the mythical centaur, has been developed by researchers at the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology), in the hope that it may one day play a vital role in disaster relief efforts.

Like the fabled creature, it has a humanoid-like upper section with two arms able to manipulate and move objects, while the quadrupedal lower half is capable of robust locomotion on uneven terrain.

Centauro the robot /Reuters Screenshot

Standing 1.5 meters tall and weighing in at 93 kilograms, the anthropomorphic Centauro is designed to work in man-made environments and manipulate human tools, though with much greater strength.

Its hybrid system combines legged and wheeled mobility, enabling it to navigate in a range of environments.

Centauro has cameras, computer vision sensors and a lidar scanner in its head to help it make sense of the environment and relay information back to its human operators.

The Centauro is currently tele-operated, but researchers are hoping to give it greater autonomy to work on its own. It will then be tested in real-world scenarios such as damaged buildings or industrial environments too dangerous for humans to venture into.

The project is led by Nikos Tsagarakis, who previously developed the humanoid robot WALK-MAN, and funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the University of Bonn in Germany.

(Top gif: Centauro the robot lifting up a six-kilogram block /Reuters Screenshot)

Source(s): Reuters