The terrifying ‘devil robot’ tackling California’s wildfires

Beau Gaston does not describe his robot as a thing of beauty. Standing at around seven feet tall, it is, in Mr Gaston's words, "creepy".

Known as the Satyress Threehalves, the device resembles a mythical metal monster.

But its frightening aesthetic is offset by its life-saving utility, protecting forestry workers sent into areas devastated by wildfires.

It is estimated that last January's California wildfires , which claimed 31 lives, caused more than $250bn (£185bn) of damage, destroying 18,000 structures.

Some of Hollywood's best-known residents, including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, were among those whose homes were destroyed.

The Satyress can clear brush and dead trees away from electrical wires and pylons before they catch fire and wreak even more damage.

It is dangerous work, but using a computer-controlled robot to wield a chainsaw is far safer than sending a person into an area under threat of another blaze.

"I tried to make it look scary because it's dangerous. It is very powerful and weighs north of 200lbs," Mr Gaston, the robot's designer, told The Telegraph.

"They are dynamically unstable, so it could fall over on you. And it's designed to operate chainsaws, another really dangerous tool."

The robots can move in ways that are quite unpredictable, Mr Gaston said.

Because people are mostly unfamiliar with how humanoid robots move and operate – or, in the case of the Satyress, sort-of humanoid – designing something that looked like a monster out of Hades seemed a sensible precaution.

"They kind of look mean, and you know not to stand near them if you don't know what they're doing. It's good to get in people's heads that a big humanoid robot is not a toy; it's not, you know, an animatronic to take a selfie with," Mr Gaston said.

"It's a machine that's there to do something so dangerous that humans shouldn't be doing it."

Considerable attention was given to the appearance of the Satyress.

"I just kind of went a bit out there with the animal head rather than a human head. I know a lot of people think this robot looks creepy," Mr Gaston added. "The human head was worse. I did try one, and I felt it looked even stranger."

At the moment, the Satyress is a prototype. Operated by joystick, it uses devices known as actuators to perform the function of joints on an animal body.

It is early days, but Mr Gaston believes the Satyress could be put on the market for around $100,000 (£74,000).

That might seem expensive, but according to Mr Gaston, it would make insurance cheaper by cutting the cost of clearing up after a fire.

Ole Lehmann, an AI-focused entrepreneur, believes the Satyress represents a step forward.

"People think this thing looks terrifying," he wrote on X. "But the centaur is actually a goated robotics design; it combines all the advantages of a humanoid upper body AND a quadruped lower body.

"The humanoid half has human reach, so it can interface with tools and environments designed for people. The quadruped half gives it a wide, stable base so it can effortlessly cross rubble, slopes and broken terrain.

"Together, this makes it perfect for sending this beast into disaster zones too dangerous for humans."

The likeliest customers are companies involved in forest clearance after a fire.

Mr Gaston could, of course, have made the robot more prosaic, perhaps resembling a Meccano set, but that would have stripped the Satyress of its fantastical allure.

So he rejected boring.

"We've already been dreaming about humanoid robots and sci-fi for, you know, 80 to 100 years or so; we've also always thought about these mythical creatures, so it's just a fun way to bring them together."

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