What has six legs, four wheels, and two karate-chopping hands? Centauro is the latest experiment by scientists to find the most adaptable and useful body-shape for robots designed to help in disasters. Usually, these machines are built like humans, with two arms and two legs, but researchers are increasingly finding that hybrid designs offer more flexibility. With its four wheeled legs, Centauro is more stable than a humanoid bot, but still retains the two forward-facing arms needed for manipulating objects like tools and doors. As reported by IEEE Spectrum, Centauro's design builds on that of Momaro, another centaur-robot designed by researchers from the University of Bonn. Momaro was the top European performer at DARPA's Robotics Challenge in 2015, which tested the ability of robots to carry out the sort of tasks they might face in a search-and-rescue mission.

These days, most robots under development seem to be based on humans. However, a tweak to these designs might actually make robots more effective and stable. Centauro is based on the design of a centaur, hence the name, and its four legs on wheels provide movement and freedom that have been unachievable with comparable bipedal models. Its human-like torso and arms allow it to perform fine motor functions. The robot stands 1.5 meters (almost 5 feet) tall and weighs 93 kgs (just over 200 lbs). Its skeleton is composed of lightweight metals, and its body is covered in 3D-printed plastic.

One of the things that we learned from the DARPA Robotics Challenge is that it's useful for robots to have legs to walk, but it's even more useful for robots to be versatile and adaptable, with multimodal locomotion capabilities that they can deploy depending on the situation. At the DRC, we saw all kinds of different designs, but one of the more unique approaches came from the University of Bonn, in Germany, with their robot Momaro. Momaro used a "centaur" design, with four legs that had wheels on the bottom (like a wheeled quadruped) coupled to a humanoid upper torso with a head and arms. It was the top-ranked European robot in the DRC, completing an almost perfect run in just 34 minutes. We've since been wondering whether the centaur design would inspire other disaster robots, and now we know the answer is yes.

The robot, modelled 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. Standing 1.5 metres tall and weighing in at 93 kgs, 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. This includes typical human infrastructures, narrow doors and corridors, and even stairs.