Science & Technology

US challenges Japan to a giant robot duel

By T.K. Randall
July 3, 2015

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Towering at a height of 15ft and weighing in at 15,000 pounds, Megabot II is a huge mechanized paintball-firing combat walker that wouldn't look out of place in the movie Pacific Rim.

Its opponent, the Japanese-made Kurutas, is 3ft shorter and weighs significantly less but is more advanced and comes equipped with a BB bullet Gatling gun and a sophisticated targeting system.

This week the US inventors behind Megabot have thrown down the gauntlet in an attempt to organize a duel between the two machines as part of an ongoing effort to start a real-life robot fighting league.

"Born of the fires of American innovation, we've built the Megapot II, America's first fully functioning piloted robot," they said. "And because we're American, we've added really, really big guns.""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."

Requiring a team of two to operate, Megabot possesses two huge modular pneumatic cannons for arms and can let loose paint-filled cannonballs at speeds of up to 120mph.

"We're bringing video games and science fiction to life in the form of internally piloted giant fighting robots," said co-founder Gui Cavalcanti.

If Japan accepts the challenge then the fight will take place in approximately one year's time.


Source: Popular Science

Tags: Japan, United States, Robot, Megabot