If Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ Corleo robot quadruped doesn’t appear in the next Ninja Gaiden game, someone in Japanese cross-marketing will have been slacking at their job. Revealed in an appearance at the Expo 2025 world exhibition in Osaka, the robotic mount is a somewhat different take on a four-wheel drive.
It has legs, for starters. It also may or may not be real, but Kawakasi is certainly treating it as if it will hit the market at some point. The company calls it a “new category of personal mobility” and it’s undeniably something we’d leap astride if given the chance.
Corleo, nè?
Video of the Corleo concept — it’s named after the constellation and not the animal, apparently — exists, but in 2025, it’s tough to know whether it’s real or not. Even if it’s just aspirational, putting intrepid riders on one of these promises to be loads of fun. It would certainly change the face of tourist quad-bike rides, introducing verticality and a tendency to veer off pathways. It would also terrify the folks on North Sentinel Island in previously-undreamed-of ways.
What is known about it is that Kawasaki envisions hydrogen fuel cells as a power source for the four-legged conveyance. An estimated top speed of 100km/h is also eye-opening, since it’ll perform similarly to a motorcycle (Kawa has experience there) with elements of… horse riding, it looks like. We’ve never seen a 100km/h stallion before — equine mammals manage about half of that — but we’d imagine it is pretty terrifying exhilarating.
A motorcycle swing arm, 150cc hydrogen engine, stirrups, and control via handlebars and the shifting of the rider’s weight would keep Corleo under control. A display screen offers details for riders — position, speed, and other metrics — and it would also project the route onto a trail at night so riders and find their way with little effort. Stick a SEAL team onto a squad of these and you’ll see some very interesting wartime footage from their helmet cams.
When or where you might see Corleo in the wild is uncertain. Kawasaki’s robotics specialists have experimented with other animal forms in the past, but we really want to see this one come to fruition. Please? Pretty please?
