{"id":421126,"date":"2026-08-01T21:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421126\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T21:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:11:12","slug":"california-inventor-of-viral-centaur-style-robot-shares-his-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/421126\/","title":{"rendered":"California inventor of viral centaur-style robot shares his mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern California inventor of centaur-style robot ‘Three-Halves’ is surprised by online frenzy<\/p>\n

\"Melissa\"DanielAUBURN, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\n

A 7-foot-tall centaur-style robot with a goat head named “Three-Halves” might one day wield a chainsaw in the woods near you. But there’s no need to be afraid. <\/p>\n

An online frenzy<\/a> about the project this week was a big surprise to its inventor Beau, an engineer by day who works on the centaur at night out of his garage in Auburn, California. <\/p>\n

Beau said that he created the Satyress website<\/a> nearly two years ago to document and protect his design. He would usually get about 30 hits a day. This week, posts about Three-Halves caught fire on X, and he needed to increase his server bandwidth to accommodate millions of new views.<\/p>\n

Three-Halves aims to save lives in wildfire zones and disaster sites by helping its operators complete dangerous tasks via a gaming controller. The robot features four legs for stability, a horse-like body, and a goat-like head with horns. It is equipped with two arms capable of using tools, including a chainsaw.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n

Beau said that having four legs “is a nice way to be pretty stable. It’s a lot easier to make it walk compared to a biped because it’s just more dynamically stable. It’s quite light if you compare it to something like wheels or tracks.” <\/p>\n

Living in an area that is prone to wildfires led Beau to consider making a robot that could help with cutting dead trees, clearing debris away from powerlines, and avoiding injuries from falling branches. <\/p>\n

“The fun part is doing the work,” he said of forestry. “The not fun part is getting hurt.”<\/p>\n

While some might think his company Satyress<\/a> is a shadowy startup, Beau said he’s been working on the project with friends and without investors.<\/p>\n

Another misconception, is that the robot would use AI or be controlled from a far distance. That’s not the case. <\/p>\n

Beau is building the robot as a proof of concept, and said he “has a ways to go” as part of a “slow, careful process.” <\/p>\n

He hopes to get the robot standing by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

Satyress’ website includes instructions on how to kill the robot with a gun or knife, which has led to much speculation about whether the robot is real, the stuff of nightmares, or a joke.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"Image<\/p>\n

It’s fun to talk about the robot, Beau said. <\/p>\n

“Humanoid robots are supposed to be exciting,” he said. “Hopefully this robot will be for some people, and I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t be for everyone.”<\/p>\n

He sees parallels between robotics work by hobbyists and hot rods. <\/p>\n

“Twenty years ago you might have been building a race car in your garage. Twenty years from now you might be building a humanoid robot in your garage,” he said. <\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern California inventor of centaur-style robot ‘Three-Halves’ is surprised by online frenzy AUBURN, Calif. \u2014 A 7-foot-tall centaur-style…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,168203,8,168197,85459,168202,217,168199,14913,168198,34904,266,1506,30486,168201,168200,430,42346,72],"class_list":["post-421126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-inventor","tag-california-news","tag-centaur","tag-chainsaw","tag-company-satyress","tag-day","tag-fun-part","tag-garage","tag-inventor-beau","tag-leg","tag-northern-california","tag-project","tag-robot","tag-satyress-website","tag-viral-centaur-style-robot","tag-week","tag-wildfire-zone","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}