[Real Life] Attention mecha fans!, Japanese company builds prototype mecha |
[Real Life] Attention mecha fans!, Japanese company builds prototype mecha |
Sep 8 2005, 05:42 PM
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#1
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Shooting Target Group: Validating Posts: 1,618 Joined: 29-January 03 From: Montevideo, Uruguay. Member No.: 3,992 |
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Sep 8 2005, 05:55 PM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 5,889 Joined: 3-August 03 From: A CPI rank 1 country Member No.: 5,222 |
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Sep 8 2005, 05:57 PM
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#3
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Shooting Target Group: Validating Posts: 1,618 Joined: 29-January 03 From: Montevideo, Uruguay. Member No.: 3,992 |
:oops:
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Sep 8 2005, 05:58 PM
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#4
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,453 Joined: 17-September 04 From: St. Paul Member No.: 6,675 |
The thing would fall over on a 1% slope.
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Sep 8 2005, 06:19 PM
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#5
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,428 Joined: 9-June 02 Member No.: 2,860 |
It doesn't even walk, it just shuffles on wheels.
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Sep 8 2005, 07:28 PM
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#6
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,174 Joined: 13-May 04 From: UCAS Member No.: 6,327 |
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Sep 8 2005, 08:28 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 932 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Orlando, Florida Member No.: 1,042 |
This is better than a Hummer with a .50 BMG and a TOW on the back...how?
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Sep 8 2005, 08:50 PM
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#8
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
I'll tell you what WOULD make it just short of invincible. Make the cabin smaller so it can only be driven by school children. No one can beat a mecha driven by seventh graders.
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Sep 8 2005, 09:28 PM
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#9
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,901 Joined: 19-June 03 Member No.: 4,775 |
It is a little known fact that nezumi is in fact hand carved by seventh generation Swedish master craftsmen from a solid block of awesome.
Try and imagine a Model T (or worse, really) with a machine gun of the day tied to it. Pretty useless, right? Give this just a third of the development time that's had and we'll have something practically useful. There's plenty of potential for much more mobile armor of varying strengths and purposes in an urban combat setting, and plenty of civilian use (construction, disaster management, etc) potential as well. |
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Sep 9 2005, 01:24 AM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 7-February 03 Member No.: 4,025 |
Cool, if I ever have to fight slow moving monsters from 10 meters away on a smooth, even surface, I'm usin' that bad boy!!!
Actually, it'd make an awesome addition to a customized paintball park.... Hey anybody here seen "Aliens." Wasn't a lot of that gadget real? |
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Sep 9 2005, 01:31 AM
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#11
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panda! Group: Members Posts: 10,331 Joined: 8-March 02 From: north of central europe Member No.: 2,242 |
well those crazy japs have made a powerd exoskeleton like system.
all we realy need is to scale it up some and the loader suits of aliens fame should be workable. for combat tho is still to slow. and the "suit" linked to in this topic isnt balanced by the pilots own balance. still, there are some selfbalancing robots out there now. scale em up and replace much of the torso with a cabin and things start to get interesting. so while the item in the article may be just for show. the baseline tech is being developed as we speak and just need some more years of refinement so that it can more or less match the human body for speed while carrying a load thats bigger then any human to date can handle ;) |
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Sep 9 2005, 01:47 PM
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#12
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Incertum est quo loco te mors expectet; Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,546 Joined: 24-October 03 From: DeeCee, U.S. Member No.: 5,760 |
I might be immodest, but I think this'll leave me laughing all day. Thanks :) |
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Sep 9 2005, 02:04 PM
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#13
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,428 Joined: 9-June 02 Member No.: 2,860 |
If this mecha actually walked, I'd agree with you. You have to start somewhere and several generations down the line, an effective walking armored unit would be very useful. But this mecha hasn't taken the first step (pun intended) toward walking. Literally, it hasn't taken a step: it is a wheeled vehicle with an awkward and inefficient drive train (long struts that shuffle like legs). The casters hidden under the feet apparently have brakes that lock the wheels in place when a foot needs to be stationary, then release to let the "leg" slide a foot forward. IMO, an actual legged drive train, like the Honda Asimo, is much larger engineering achievement than a rollerskating "mecha." The video below is comical, but the little bugger is actually running (i.e., has both of its feet in the air at the same time). Asimo Running When someone builds a robot that large that can actually walk (i.e., lift its feet for movement), I'll be more impressed. Right now, this thing has done little to advance robotics or create mecha. |
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Sep 9 2005, 02:04 PM
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#14
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 7-February 03 Member No.: 4,025 |
I've thought about it, and I'm gonna throw my hat in with the pro-giant robot crowd on this one.
I was thinking about the Wright brothers, and how, after seeing their first flight, how many people "knew" that a contraption like that would have no practical application and didn't even hardly fly, really. No one imagined the F-23 at that point, not even the Wrights. Sure, that thing in the video is a toy, but it's also a statement of vision. (The guns are a little silly though. I think they work against credibility.) I've seen that little three-foot tall walking 'bot that can climb stairs and so on too, and I'm convinced that it can be done. And it seems to me that if it can be done, it will, regardless of if it needs to be. |
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Sep 9 2005, 03:28 PM
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#15
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,901 Joined: 19-June 03 Member No.: 4,775 |
I wasn't really referring to the shuffling mecha nearly as much as the recent powered exo skeletons, Asimo, and other recent robotics developments. I realize the shuffling mecha is really not that impressive.
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Sep 9 2005, 03:46 PM
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#16
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,070 Joined: 7-February 04 From: NYC Member No.: 6,058 |
It's a bad analogy. Most of the cirtics at the time were probably ignorant of even the basic physics involved. Saying that walkers will be viable battlefield machines is like saying that the F-22 will one day have meaningful competition from a flying machine that gets aloft by flapping its wings. Unless someone finds a way to suspend the laws of physics, that just isn't going to happen... just like the walker is always going to be a monumentally inefficient design. Any technology that makes a walker possible - never mind practical - is just going to make conventional wheeled or airborne vehicles that much more efficient. The gap will never close. |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:05 PM
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#17
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 637 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,528 |
Well, it's a JAPANESE system and it is well known that Japan has occassional problems with big, slow monsters rampaging around in the Cities. So maybe that's the next generation Anti-Godjira weapon :D Maybe we should Surge that japanese Dragon to something more fitting... Birdy |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:06 PM
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#18
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 437 Joined: 11-April 05 Member No.: 7,318 |
Houseclearing, city combat.
Send in the legged drone to look around, and where a wheeled vehicle would stop, it can climb over. Aswell as use hands to open doors etc. Best application of "intelligence" would probably be a marine in VR gear some location nearby, transmitting to the Drone by remote or wire. Construction sites, where forklifts are too clumsy or to carry stuff up stairs. Plenty of potential applications for a legged robot, just a matter of getting it good and cheap enough. |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:10 PM
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#19
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 218 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Raleigh/Durham, CAS Member No.: 149 |
Sometimes I wonder if this whole thing was just an "It seemed like a good idea at the time" project or what.
Besides the overall "Coolness" of it, is there really a tactical aplication for a mobile walker unit? Not to derail this but even the most recent Metal Gear game debunked the whole walking tank thing. If you mounted almost any type of cannon on it, the recoil would almost knock down it as there's not enough contact surface to brace the shock. (Almost as there are some recoil-less weapons.) And it would provide a much bigger profile, ie TARGET, to aim for. Maybe we should ask some of our resident Mech-jockeys here what their take on this is. You know... I'm really tempted to post this on the Penny-Arcade boards with just he heading of "Metal..... Gear" |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:12 PM
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#20
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Horror Group: Members Posts: 5,322 Joined: 15-June 05 From: BumFuck, New Jersey Member No.: 7,445 |
Oh gods, not another one of these arguments.
*Whine.* I've seen them before. They're ugly. |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:16 PM
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#21
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 637 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,528 |
Can't have that. It's bad for Hollywood. I mean come on, who would go into a movie where the lead actress is a rather bland "nerd" type that sit's in front of a computer all the time? Or where action is limited to "I send my drones"? Minimum is the nerd running around, maybe a Bikini scene or two. ;) And it's even worse for the male actors. Imagin Brad Pitt without a chance to show of his bare chest. Nah, no way! Or imagin John Wayne sending his drone fighter against the russian one. Wouldn't work out, unless the fighters start an affair... :D So forget smart drones, stick to real marines and have Hollywood cast well formed actors in semi-torn clothes for the "films based on". 8) Birdy |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:28 PM
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#22
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 7-February 03 Member No.: 4,025 |
MMU1, The critics of the late 1800's were just as sure of their understanding of science as we are of ours. Just 'cause we haven't thought of a way to do it yet is not enough to say that it can't be done. It sounds to me like you're saying "They only thought they were right, I know I am."
I reiterate, what that video shows me is that there are some (strange but) dedicated people who want that badly to make it happen. Historically, that pretty much means that it will, eventually. Call it the 'because it is there' line of thought. You seem to be arguing that since it isn't the 'best' idea, it won't take off. Isn't that like saying that muscle cars shouldn't be because economy cars can? I think these 'bots'll exist in a more advanced form than we're seeing here for no other reason than a bunch of people with engineering degrees think they are cool. And don't limit yourself to thinking of "battlefield" machines. Besides, there are some pretty significant -some would say dominant- machines trundling around this planet making pretty good use of the 'walker' design. Billions, in fact. Mind you, they've got some pretty sophisticated computers running them. |
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Sep 9 2005, 04:55 PM
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#23
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Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill. Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,545 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Gloomy Boise Idaho Member No.: 2,006 |
I think what he was saying is that it will never be practical. It is to complicated to ever be practical. Why use it when we have more conventional and established means of doing the same thing?
It will never be used on the battlefield in any kind of combat capacity I assure you. And it isn't because there is some new thing waiting to be discovered that I don't know about. Something’s are absolute no matter how much you want them not to be. The people who criticized the Wright brothers did so from a place of ignorance. No one knew anything about flying back then. Since people hadn't done it, they assumed it couldn't be done. We are not criticizing from a place of ignorance. We all know how physics work, how practicality works etc. |
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Sep 9 2005, 05:19 PM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 7-February 03 Member No.: 4,025 |
Everyday, we use gadgets and do things that are impractical. You know anybody who plants a flower garden? Why use a riding mower when you can get exercise and save money with a push mower?
"It will never be used on the battlefield in any kind of combat capacity...." You say. By "it" do you mean the primitive contraption in the video? I agree. "...used on the battlefield..." could it be used somewhere else? "...combat capacity..." as I said, how about another capacity? Why did armies wear dashing, colourful uniforms for so long when mottled earth tones made more sense? We put sattelites in orbit so we can get a clearer picture of David Letterman. Chuck Yeager wrote about a time when he "knew" that an airplane couldn't fly unless it's wingspan was greater than its length. How can we possibly know that a technology is not going to be possible? Of course we are all speaking from a place of ignorance. We simply cannot know. Today we take for granted that we have tiny portable music players with no moving parts. Ask your parents if they thought that was possible thirty years ago. Anyway, I cannot prove something in the future will happen any more than you can prove that it won't, so I guess we're both fools. I'm done. |
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Sep 9 2005, 05:49 PM
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#25
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,428 Joined: 9-June 02 Member No.: 2,860 |
No, none of it was real. A weightlifter stood behind the rig and helped it move.
Agreed, and the all terrain features of a mecha's legs - even one this big - could make it very useful, even if other vehicles were more efficient at some of its tasks. However, it won't be a derivative of this. It's an impressive accomplishment, but without even being able to walk, I have trouble calling it a mecha. |
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