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Homemade Mecha Walks in Japan
EtherAlchemist writes "Sakakibara Kikai has pictures and even a movie of their Land Walker robot (Babelfish translation here) which appears to work. Powered by a 250cc gas engine and armed with several guns (including 2 that fire Nerf-like balls) it stands at a little over 3 meters. What makes this one interesting is that it is actually armed and it is piloted instead of being an exo-skeleton. Makes me wonder if the creators of shows like Robotech or comics/RPGs like Battletech have any kind of licensening rights on appearance. I'd like to see a Warhammer..."
/sarcasm alarm triggered
Just like the UAVs were just going to take pictures, right?
> Makes me wonder if the creators of shows like Robotech or comics/RPGs like Battletech have any kind of licensening rights on appearance.
This may sound like a troll, but I don't mean it that way:
Just because in this day and age people can sue other people for just about any reason, doesn't mean that everything needs to be turned into a legal issue.
If I was a member of this mecha's development team and I read this, I'd seriously be wondering whether inclusion on slashdot was really such a good thing after all.
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
*gak*
It moves along on wheels under the feet - think roller-skates. Also, think of how a large, mainly top-heavy (I'll bet the legs' only function is as ballast) thing scooting along ... on roller-skates. It is unstable. :(
Neat, but ... well, if you're going to build something like this, why not at least have it walk or do something more useful with the legs than provide ballast? Also, a gyro might help with this thing's drunken swagger.
It's not that it's terrible ... but I think it doesn't even perform up to the same bar that has been set by exoskeleton systems.
Looks like it's completely analog, no digital gyro or actuators. No radar... No night vision... No talking computer... this is nothing like a mech, more like an upright motor vehicle, aka a freaking car. I don't consider something a mech unless it has at least a few of these things. Not to mention the fact that I can walk faster than this thing, it has literally no use whatsoever, not even a leap in design... just a pet project by an amateur engineer. I would be impressed if this thing didn't use wheels and an unneccesarily fiction-based design to get around.
Do we really want autonomous vehicles honing their destructive skills?
Mecha started with "Giant Robots" which were really Japan's way of doing Sci-fi while tying back to its Samurai roots.
When you actually look objectively at what a "Mech" would require, engineeringwise, and how it would pose risks to the human pilot, you realize how it will never become a reality, no matter how much R&D is spent.
When you watch an anime battle with Mecha you see a lot of instances of these things doing hairpin turns and falling to the ground and bouncing around in a jarring fashion. Even today jet pilots can not pull certain maneuvers without blacking out from the G-forces. The kinds of things you see in anime would kill a human pilot instantly without some kind of magical inertial dampener technology. You'd be lucky if you walked away with just a case of whiplash.
Secondly, we just don't have materials strong enough to build one of these. The joints especially are problematic. There is a real limit to how big these can be without being ultra fragile. If one of these were to fall over, not only would you need help to pick it up, but you'd probably also have to repair it.
Third, power supply. All those motors need energy. How long do you think it will run off an internal battery or some noisy gas engine?
I think it's great to try, but just because it LOOKS like something out of anime doesn't mean it's going to be anything close to as functional, and like I said, even if you could magically produce something that could perform like anime, without those intertial dampenders you REALLY wouldn't want to play around with it.
Ithought that at first, but the way the guns wobbled around, as well as the way it kind of sways side to side makes me think it's real.
You say "old people" walker like it's a bad thing. My brother-in-law has MD and an exoskeleton that would give him back his independence (imagine going through puberty and having to have your mother help you go to the bathroom) would be worth its weight in gold.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
I'm kinda wondering what kinda use this thing has... it's not really walking - looks like it has wheels under the feet. Just slides one leg forward and slams the breaks on them wheels, and then move the other leg forward.
About as useful as a car with tires that doesnt really roll.
Good analysis, but let me add just one point...
Military vehicle designers have a name for big round blobs sitting on top of stilts. They call it 'a target'. There is a reason that both the Abram's tank and the Hummer are wide flat vehicles. You get the carrying capacity, and if a shell explodes nearby there is less chance of flipping the vehicle. The typical 'mech' design would be easily toppled and rendered useless with a simple hand tossed grenade, and that big round blob provide lots of area to absorb the blast.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
I think the video looks pretty real. I'd actually be even more impressed if this was a render as everything looks absolutely real. Making a robot takes some money and effort, but isn't out of the relm of possibility. Making a render with the lighting effects etc is even out of the question hollywood tech. (Well maybe not quite, but you get my point)
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. -- FDR
There is a reason that both the Abram's tank and the Hummer are wide flat vehicles.
And just to add to that, all the robots in Robot Wars "evolved" into those wide, flat wedges for pretty much the same reason.
Wide, flat wedges may be boring, but they make a hell of a better fighting vehicle than a tall biped presenting a nice tall target, with very little stability. Mechs look awesome, but from a military point of view, you'd have to admit they're pretty rediculous.
Saving fellow men, your friends in fact ... makes you an idiot?
Thank god we have all these "idiots" willing to risk their lives to protect you, huh?
Protecting us? from what? Weapons of mass deception? The only way I'd feel safe from the Imperial US is if I lived in a country without oil.
What you are saying is true for the classical type of battle, i.e. an open battlefield with mostly flat terrain. But this is hardly the case for today, where the air force plays the most significant role, and armies are called to fight in very diverse areas.
On the other hand, it would be much easier for a robot like this to play hide-and-seek in mountainous areas, then instantly take off with a quick jump in the air and transform to an aircraft. It would also be possible to hide it inside mountain curves. Imagine a fleet of Veritechs suddently taking off an island that has no landing strips! what a big surprise would it be for the enemy! the advantage of Veritechs should be enormous in this situation.
Another good use for this kind of vehicles is rescue operations. These type of robots could reach where no helicopter could go, get the people and then easily fight its way back to the base.