Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has released a list of ambitious plans, including moon exploration, a methane-fueled rocket creation program and… a fleet of centaur-like robots.
The latter is one of the agency’s concepts for autonomous systems that will perform tasks on the surfaces of other planets, Alexander Bloshenko, the executive director of Roscosmos, told the state-run TASS news agency Monday.
The device will be a walking wheeled truck with an anthropomorphic torso that can roll and step over obstacles. These anthropomorphic robots will be able to copy their human operator’s movements with the help of a special device, Bloshenko said.
“Anthropomorphism will be in demand for performing non-standard tasks,” he said.
A prototype of such a truck was first created in the U.S.S.R. at the Russian State Scientific Center for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics. The new Roscosmos concept is based on this prototype, Bloshenko said.
Roscosmos is now planning to create a testing ground for these half-horse, half-human robots here on Earth, Bloshenko said. Let’s hope they stay in their testing areas and don’t venture out into the real world.
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