USA Vs Japan: Giant Robot Battle

It’s basically an advert for a Autodesk, but the video is so ridiculous, we can’t resist: The MegaBots team challenges Suidobashi Heavy Industries to a robot battle.

Artisan’s Asylum, a hackerspace in Boston, tried and failed to raise $1.8 million in a kickstarter, but then they got sponsored by Autodesk and built the bot in the end. You may have seen the MegaBots bot at Maker Faire 2015, where it fired paintballs at a defenseless art car. We can forgive a lot of bad behavior when it comes to giant robots.

In case you’re wondering, the Japanese robot that’s being smack-talked is the Kuratas, designed by a two-man artist and roboticist team: Suidobashi Heavy Industry. The “sales-promo” video is at times amazing and hilarious. As far as we know, it’s all real.

Now whether or not it will be exciting to see these two slow-moving behemoths duking it out with paintballs, you’ve got to admit it’ll be a spectacle. Here’s hoping.

33 thoughts on “USA Vs Japan: Giant Robot Battle

  1. I’m pretty sure the Kuratas has the MegaBot beat on maneuverability, I hope if this challenge comes to fruition that the Suidobashi team can come up with some proper weapons for it because I bet it could kick the MegaBot’s ugly, overweight, scrapmetal arse. ;P

    1. Some tech details of the Kuratas:
      The video if it zipping around neighborhoods in Tokyo, they admit is fake. It does not move that fast. It is built off several(?) hybrid gas/electric/hydraulic fork lifts, although they run it only on batteries during demos. The wheels are either electric or hydraulic. Fairly small. You can guess its top speed is less than a fully loaded forklift. However all 4 wheels are articulated, so it performs all the usual movements, as well as spin in place, move side ways and diagonally. so, yeah, pretty maneuverable if not exactly fast.
      The gun can fire a bottle of water at least 20 meters, so soaking the Asylum bot in paint is not a problem.
      Yes Kuratas is more of a fully fleshed product. They have produced 3 as far as I know (Gray, Red and Yellow).
      It has it where it counts in pilot protection. Fully enclosed, armored cabin canopy with no windows. Instead, 6 camera views are displayed within canopy on screens (three front, high, forward and low, left and right sides, and back). Pilot unlikely to get splashed by paintballs or injured by flying scrap.
      The control interface is highly custom and feature rich, with a multi-axis stick/wheel thing with buttons and foot pedals. The control interface makes it possible to easily do complex movements, though rolling and arm movements may not be easy to do all at once. At least one of the screens is touch enabled, and all have HUD data overlays. From what I could tell, they have REALLY good software driving everything to make the UI very intuitive.
      Lots of switches and knobs in the cabin as well, though I suspect much of it for show. I do know all power and manual operations are possible from the cabin.

      1. Kuratas definitely is gasoline fueled? The video was confusing me as they stated it uses gasoline fuel and yet has a diesel engine, a combination that does not sound great.

      2. Oh, I had totally forgotten about that bit from the promo video. (I just went back and watched all their videos) Yeah, that was obvious CG. No, I was simply referring to the difference in their methods of locomotion. The Kuratas looks like it can maneuver around easier…probably faster, too…but certainly more maneuverable at the very least.

        Heh, I saw the yellow one in an episode of the live-action Patlabor TV series…yeah, dunno if it was another machine, or they just modified the gray one.

        1. It may be more maneuverable, but with projectiles more damaging than water bottles and bb’s my money would be on the treads.

          The treads are still zero-turn and give a more stable base on uneven terrain. About the only advantage left for the Kuratas is the ability to run on the diagonal but I’ll gladly trade that for not totally losing mobility with the loss of just one of my wheels.

      1. i think this is a case of “all trucks are cars but not all cars are trucks” this being “all mechs are robots”

        mechs are a class of robot defined by being “large robots people ride in” so yes these are both robots and mechs

        1. All trucks are automobiles but not all automobiles are trucks… actually the only car that would be a truck is something like an El Camino.

          Its more like both mechs and roombas are robots. But a mech is not an roomba and vice versa. Unless you have a cat riding on a roomba… then its a mech.

          Eh… I googled a bit more and a roomba can be a people mech too O.o… http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/05/video-undefined-193770B800000578-510_636x358.jpg

        2. A mech is not a class of robot. Robot is an automatic machine. A mech is controlled by human, it is manual (even if it did have some automatic functions) therefore a mech is not a robot.

    1. Battle Bots is [re]happening, I can only assume with time,Battle Mechs will happen when more people build mechs they’re willing to destroy. Although judging from what these do, they’ll probably be gaitn nerf rockets and paint balloons… baby steps until gundam wing [my only cartoon mech reference besides transformers and power rangers.. XD] happens IRL.

  2. They should stop effing around with bullshit robots after the utter failure to provide own robots for use in fukushima.

    That was an eye-opener. They are completely on the wrong track with their kawaii gait-imitating anime toy robots.

  3. Does look a little bit like a junkyard wars mashup. Now if someone like Colin Furze decided to put together a ‘robot’ like this, then it would probably be a better fit for this machine than the kuratas. The Kuratas seems to be a full product, this machine seems to be a functional prototype or spectacle piece.

    1. come on guys ! We’re on hackaday ! :)
      I cannot accept to order an off the shelf Mech (Mecha or whatever you may call it). Just give me an Autocannon 20, hellfire missiles and a bunch of PPC and I’ll blast you off :) (just kidding, these guys are awesome).
      Maybe this could be an HaD project for the next year !

      BTW, insane videos ! can’t wait to see the next challenge. Please Dassault give me few bucks to beat an autodesk mecha.

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