“The future is here”: Why this humanoid robot needs four arms

A robot with four arms and no legs sounds like something out of a science fiction film, but it turns out that's exactly the right design for space.

Swiss ETH Focus Project ORBIT Robotics unveiled its Helios robot on May 21st, built specifically for microgravity environments like space stations. Without gravity, legs are essentially useless, so the team replaced them with two extra arms, giving Helios four limbs to grip, maneuver, and multitask simultaneously.

The practical motivation is striking. Astronauts currently spend around 35% of their time on maintenance work, with a single cargo unloading cycle taking roughly 50 hours and costing an estimated 140,000 dollars per astronaut hour.

Helios is designed to take on those tedious but essential tasks, from sorting equipment to tracking inventory.

The robot also uses a tendon-driven arm system, with motors near the shoulders transferring force through cables, making the limbs lighter and surprisingly fluid in their movements.