The Megabot
II (left) hopes to take on its Japanese counterpart, called Kuratas
(right) in a battle to the death (or until they run out of fuel)
It could be an amazing mechanical matchup.
US inventors have revealed the Megabot II, a fifteen foot tall robot with paint cannons for arms.
They have issued a challenge to Kuratas, a Japanese giant robot, to take it on.
'Born
of the fires of American innovation, we've built the Megapot II,
America's first fully functioning piloted robot,' says its creators in a
video.
'And because we're American, we've added really, really big guns.'
However, them team admit they were beated to the punch by their Japanese counterparts.
'The mark II isn't the first fighting robot in the world, Kuratas beat us to it.
'We have a giant robot, you have a giant robot.
'You know what that means - we challenge you to a duel.
'Name your battlefiend, and in one year, we fight.'
The Megabot was originally conceived as a Kickstarter project to create a robot fighting league.
'We're
bringing video games and science fiction to life in the form of
internally piloted giant fighting robots,' Gui Cavalcanti, co-founder of
MegoBots, Inc. told Engadget.
15-foot-tall,
15,000-pound, walking humanoid combat robots with giant, modular
pneumatic cannons for arms would be controlled by a team of two, a
driver and a gunner, and feature breakaway armour.
It would fire three-pound, paint-filled cannonballs fired at 120 mph.
'As
projectiles hit their targets, armour plates shatter and explode, and
computers tally critical hits to the robot's limbs and torso.
'As
more and more hits are taken, robots start to limp, joints start to
seize, weapons start to jam, and after enough damage, limbs are
completely blown off.
'The last MegaBot standing wins!'
| MEGABOT II | KURATAS | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | not for sale | $1million |
| Height | 15 feet | 12 feet |
| Weight | 15,000lbs | 8,000lbs |
| Operators | two | one - or remote control |
| Weapons | Painball gun | BB bullet gatling gun & bottle rockets |
| Locomotion | Tank Tracks | Four wheels |
| All specifications TBC | ||
The
Kuratas robot is more advanced, and the Japanese electronics firm is
selling the 13ft (four metre) mechanical suit on Amazon for $1 million
(£659,000).
Dubbed Kuratas, the five-ton, four-wheeled device was the brainchild of inventor Kogora Kurata from Japan's Kanto region.
The Megabot has two operators, a driver and a weapons specialist
Kuratas has
around 30 hydraulic joints which the pilot moves using motion
control.
It comes in 16 colours, including black and pink.
'It
seemed unlikely that anyone would develop giant robots however long I
waited. And so I thought, I might as well make one myself - that's how
it started,' Kurata said in an interview with Zoomin.TV.
Kuratas
can be operated using a 'Master-Slave system' where users control the
robot's movements from outside using any device with a 3G network.
They
can also step inside the suit to control its movements in the same way
as exoskeletons are used for fictional characters such as Iron Man.
Overall,
the robot has around 30 hydraulic joints which the pilot moves using
motion control. It comes in 16 colours, including black and pink.
It can also be fitted with a
futuristic weapons system, including a gun capable of shooting 6,000 BB
bullets a minute, which fires when the pilot smiles
Users can also step inside the suit to control its movements in the same way as Iron Man (pictured)
Currently Kuratas is not capable of walking, but is able to drive at 6mph (10 km/h)
It
can also be fitted with a futuristic weapons system, including a gun
capable of shooting 6,000 BB bullets a minute, which fires when the
pilot smiles.
'Automatic alignment allows you to lock on your enemy target. Kuratas will not allow any targets to escape,' the company writes.
'With the alignment set appropriately the system will fire BBs when the pilot smiles.'
Realising
that there may be a flaw with this system of opening fire, a video
warns the pilot against smiling too much while operating the Kuratas
weaponry.
However, there is another major caveat.
The robot is advertised as a kit, which means whoever buys it will also have to put it together.
Dubbed Kuratas, the five-ton,
four-legged device was the brainchild of inventor Kogora Kurata from
Japan's Kanto region. Pictured is an early prototype of the exoskeleton,
which was unveiled in 2012
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