Your Own Mecha

BJH writes "A Japanese company by the unfortunate name of tmsuk has just announced the world's largest robot capable of carrying a person - the 3.5m tall, 5 ton T52 Enryu HyperRescueRobot. Their product site is in Japanese, but here's a few fun facts: it's 10m wide with its arms fully outstretched, is powered by an onboard water-cooled three cylinder direct injection diesel engine, has a maximum speed of 3Km/h, and carries seven 680,000-pixel CCD cameras with a separate monitor for each camera. If no whiny 14-year-olds are available to pilot it, it can be remotely controlled (with a dummy plug in the cockpit, presumably)."

Comments

Robot Wars - Now in the prime time?

[roadhog95]

I think its about time we had something to compete with mainstream competitive sports.
Imagine, "RoboBOWL IV in Wichita!": Humans piloting battle mechas! (we'd probably have to tone it down to "touch tackling" starting out) We dont have to worry about training camps, gender based deliniations (though i must say, some of the female transformers from the 80's did help me through puberty) or player injuries! (much.. Im sure rumors of sabotage and unnecessary roughness resulting in pilot injury or death will soon follow).. My money is on the fact that in 5 years we'll have drowned out all the smarmy NASCAR fans! Who wants to watch Dale E. Jr crackup making left turns when you can see Dennis Rodman kick the ever lovin-s**t out of someone with a metal pile driver!

Now then....

[ndnet]

There are a few threads saying 'oh, this has been done' and 'it's useless' already.

That's silly. It's a prototype. (Perhaps even a test type or earlier!) It has no weapons. No armor. The electronics are there, but the cockpit in the current form is uncomfortable and small. There is no life support. It's small, bordering on "this is just a new kevlar vest, right?" tiny.

But before millionaires can have Big series and the rest of the world Leos or Zakus, these inefficient designs must come and go. Eventually we'll stumble on a Tallgeese or something.

Besides, they didn't say it was combat-ready. IIRC, the blurb says it was the "HyperRescueRobot." That doesn't sound like something I'd want to pilot into a war.

Not to mention the fact that the cockpit not only lacks armor, but is exposed. What is this, Dorothy-1?

Now, I'm toying with building a Big O cockpit. I just need a few other parts funded and built, and then "It's SHOWTIIIIME!!!!"


(Note: I have been considering a Big O replica cockpit, but slowly changing that plan. Unsuprisingly, Slashdot is the impetus for this gradual change.)

Re:Idiot.

[chendo]

Actually, Neon Genesis Evangelion isn't a cartoon for kids. Average kids don't have the intellectual capacity to understand it. And maybe some adults.

References to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sephiroth Tree of Life, lots more religous references than the Matrix...

Unlike most anime, NGE leaves you to draw your own conclusions.

It's definitely one of the most influential anime of all time considering how much people it drove into therapy :)

For those NGE fanboys, Girlfriend of Steel 2 (the manga) is being scanslated by Studio ADTRW. I'm not direct-linking them in case I slashdot them. Use the BT links. 3 chapters have been released so far. And no, I don't work for them ;p

Fake.

[Unknown Poltroon]

I remember reading an article on how they made the movie, and the loaders involved a thing plastic shell and a really strong guy inside to make it move. I could be remembering wrong, but which is more likely, that they used a high tech prototype walker that weve never seen or heard of since, or hollywood magic?

No, thanks...

[paulcammish]

... ill have a Tachikoma/Fuchikoma instead: http://www.banryu.jp/

Ok, ok... Yea, it looks more like an Evil Aibo... damn.

Re:Bring on the Aliens

[payndz]

Not CGI - that wasn't even an option at the time Aliens was made, in terms of technology *or* budget. A fair amount was done full-size with the loader on either cables or a crane arm, with a stuntman inside the body lifting the limbs. The rest was done with rod puppets. Cinefex did a great article back in 1986, and there's a hell of a lot about it in the new Alien Quadrilogy DVD set.

Re:Bring on the Aliens

[mikk]

It's Caterpillar P-5000.

Look here for more information: http://www.serenadawn.com/Alien-Vehicles.htm

Japanese kids dreams of. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

Mech; of team-work. (You need tons of people to design, maintain, command and finally, pilot mechs. That's Japanese thinking to a 'T'.)

American kids, (in the land of All for One and Crumbs for All), dreamed of Batman and Spiderman, ultimate individualists.

And so kids grow into adults, adults engineer reality.

When sitting around on my friend's front porch many, many years ago, this came to us a new and startling realization. My friend turned to me aghast, "The Japanese are going to have fucking mechs! --The Americans are going to have idiots running around in capes."

He then, imitating a big robot arm, held up his hand and swatted the porch. "SQUASH!"

Although. . .

With genetic research and the recent spate of films like, "Spider Man," (which no longer look to nuclear science to create its heroes. . .) It'll be interesting to see which dream of youth irresponsibly brought into adult reality turns out to be the more devastating.

-FL