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United States Japan Robotics

Japanese and US Piloted Robots To Brawl For National Pride 107

Posted by samzenpus from the robot-jox dept.
jfruh writes: Japan may have just lost the Women's World Cup to the U.S., but the country is hoping for a comeback in another competition: a battle between giant robots. Suidobashi Heavy Industry has agreed to a challenge from Boston-based MegaBots that would involve titanic armored robots developed by each startup, the first of its kind involving piloted machines that are roughly 4 meters tall. "We can't let another country win this," Kogoro Kurata, who is CEO of Suidobashi, said in a video posted to YouTube. "Giant robots are Japanese culture."
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Japanese and US Piloted Robots To Brawl For National Pride More

Japanese and US Piloted Robots To Brawl For National Pride

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  • for the cheesy family movie "Real Steel"?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      you mean Robot jox from 1989 right?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Competing robots certainly could be the basis for film, hopefully something with more depth than combat. Think of competition as being a form of iterative equation solving, a sort of test and select driven evolution.

      Building robots is expensive. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to "hire" unemployed masses for use with robotic controllers? Payment can take the form of tube-feeding and immersive VR. The VR can be so good that after some simulated sleep/wake cycles they won't know they're in it. Suspici

    • More like Robot Jox. However, what I'm really hoping for is a BattleTech :)

  • Did this immediately remind anyone else of One Must Fall 2097, the DOS video game that you loved growing up?

    Mechanic: "Humph. You think you're pretty good, don't you. Well, if I was younger, I'd show you a thing or two."

    • Actually, it reminded me of G Gundam.

      • I have so many hazy geek neurons firing off thinking about this I can't stop giggling.

        From TV shows I barely remember (some space aircraft carrier with a huge cannon -- which Google shockingly dredged up Star Blazers [wikipedia.org] ), to early mech comics and video games,, To Voltron or Gundam, to the modern screen adaptation of "Space Battleship Yamato" or even Pacific Rim.

        I know this won't come close, but hot damn if that doesn't sound cool.

        I for one welcome our new Meccha overlords.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Space aircraft carrier is Robotech, specifically the Super Dimension Fortress -1. People who are more into anime than I am refer to it as Macross.

          • Space aircraft carrier is Robotech, specifically the Super Dimension Fortress -1. People who are more into anime than I am refer to it as Macross.

            Thanks. Many many hazy childhood memories can be nicely described in this guide [bleedingcool.com] I found.

            Giant robots have been around a long time, and many of us remember the initial shows from when we were kids but can't quite dredge up the specifics.

            Might need to visit the local anime store sometime soon now that I have some fresh names to refer to and look for.

          • True enough, but its a short jump to think "Space Aircraft Carrier w/huge gun we don't see much" might mean "Space Battleship w/huge gun we see a lot more".

            Especially if its an old memory.

            "Star Blazers" (which your friends who know Macross would probably call Space Battleship Yamato), predates Robotech by at least 5 years and for many was the first introduction to Anime in any form.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Holi ( 250190 )
          Star Blazers is Space Battleship Yamato and it wasn't an aircraft carrier it was a battleship. I remember rushing home from school to catch it in all the fuzziness that was UHF.

          • Yeah, I remember not only was it some of the first anime I ever saw, but it was the first animated show I ever saw which had a story arc.

            I didn't watch it on UHF, but it certainly was the first I'd seen of anime and not just cartoons.

            And I certainly do remember racing home from school to see it.

          • If you're remember aircraft carriers in old dubbed anime, you're probably remembering Robotech; the Macross had two aircraft carriers attached to it as arms.

        • FYI: Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato (both the original 1970's anime and recent live-action flick) are all the same thing; Star Blazers was the US adaptation of the original series/anime... none of which featured giant robots (though the live action movie did have one, it was a morphed version of the original sidekick robot - it's damned name escapes me at the moment.)

          Otherwise yes, I'm an incurable fanboy of the series, movie, etc.

          • Cool ... Star Blazers is definitely the one. I've seen the modern live-action Space Battleship Yamato, and it dredged up some vague memories, but I never could get any more specific.

            I remember it being on TV before I became aware of Akira, and it was when animation was first be smart and complex.

            It's always been one of those dim memories like the TV series Quark [wikipedia.org] ... nobody else seems to have seen it or knows WTF it is, and you can never dredge up enough to explain it, and people look at you like you're cr

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dintech ( 998802 )
          Wake me up when we get to Robot Jox [imdb.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sowelu ( 713889 )

      Ah, fond memories of trying to break through the floors of the Fire and Ice arenas.

    • Ah-heh-hem. Excuse me. I have to do this.

      A-MIIIIIIIEEE-GAAAAAA

    • I don't have any ;/

      Yes I remember, and had completely forgotten until you reminded me.

  • Civilian Robots

    *Yawn* Wake me when it's over.

  • I think you dropped a zero (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Monday July 06, 2015 @01:10PM (#50056081)

    >> titanic armored robots...roughly 4 meters tall

    I think you dropped a trailing zero there. Godzilla-threatening, otherwise we're not interested.

  • Fuck drones. Gundams are coming!

  • Let's Go Voltron Force! (Score:3)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Monday July 06, 2015 @01:16PM (#50056137) Homepage Journal

    Whichever country's version of "Go Lion" forms "Blazing Sword" first, wins! That's always the final part of every battle.

  • At only four metres tall, I wouldn't call them giant.

    • This looks a lot like a publicity stunt and not at all for a brawl for "national pride".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsotha ( 720379 )

        Well, yes, of course. The whole thing reminds one of some kind of WWE event.

        On the other hand, if it becomes a regular thing with sponsors and leagues and what not it may push the field forward a bit.

    • When I was a lad, living in a paper bag at the side of the road, this was the real deal concerning Giant Robots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      . . . in the US, this was aired on UHF TV stations as: Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.

  • giant machines are US culture, and world culture (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mr_mischief ( 456295 ) on Monday July 06, 2015 @01:23PM (#50056201) Journal

    In the US we love big machines. The Queen Mary, the Spruce Goose, the continuous asphalt pavers, the Liebherr T 282 B giant dump truck (although Liebherr is a Swiss company), the Boeing 747-400 and Lockheed L-1011 wide-body passenger jets, the massive Abrams tank, the Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, the 280mm towed howitzer M65 "Atomic Annie", and such are examples.

    See how I slipped a Swiss-built monster in there? Well, the US and Japan aren't the only ones. Germany has a 31 million pound excavator [sometimes-...esting.com]. The largest plane is made in Russia by Antonov [cnn.com]. South Korea builds some of the biggest cargo ships.

    So while, yes, giant robots are a big thing in Japanese art the urge to build huge machines is all over the industrialized world. The US and Germany have never been afraid of large engineering feats. The US has a whole industry of using remotely piloted craft for actual combat.

    I don't think Japan needs to focus so much pride on this one little competition as a cultural identity issue. It's not like a US firm is going to enter a contest designing and building a robot with the intent of a face-saving loss or an honorable tie.

    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      It seems the US and Japan have a long history of working together to develop the idea of giant fighting robots.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Holi ( 250190 )
      Uh, the Queen Mary may be moored here but she is a British ship.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • ... I'm just curious how they would fight exactly. ...

      Fisticuffs?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Megane ( 129182 )
        I think a fight would be pretty pointless, possibly even boring, and when it was over, you would just end up with two broken robots. What I would like to see is some kind of athletic competition for piloted robots, sort of like the one DARPA just had, only with a little less pratfalls. You know, run an obstacle course, do a long jump, fire at targets, etc.

    • That just leaves hydraulic jaws or pneumatic/combustion rams, but I can't see any of this being used due to the danger to the pilot.

      http://www.amazon.com/35TH-Ann... [amazon.com]

  • Drones are saving large numbers of our soldiers as well as keeping innocents safe in conflicts. No longer need we bomb an entire city to kill one or two bad guys. That drone may have a human operator or be on auto pilot. But my point is that smaller robots may well be of more vital importance than huge robots. We do not need to stomp down cities like Godzilla. But a small drone with a small grenade flying through a bedroom window can kill an enemy without killing thousands of innocents.

    • Drones are saving large numbers of our soldiers as well as keeping innocents safe in conflicts. No longer need we bomb an entire city to kill one or two bad guys. That drone may have a human operator or be on auto pilot.
      But my point is that smaller robots may well be of more vital importance than huge robots. We do not need to stomp down cities like Godzilla. But a small drone with a small grenade flying through a bedroom window can kill an enemy without killing thousands of innocents.
      I do see that very large robots could get the public more aware and more eager to see high function robots and that might lead to better funding and training of engineers which is great. But in the end the tiny robot is what we really need the most. A self driving car may well have the "robotics" built into the dash board and look like any other car. The robot is essentially invisible. And the robot can actually be spread about in various nooks and crannies of a machine. We need not fixate on a robot that we can see as an entity in itself. Imagine a very simple robot such that each leg of a table adjusts so that the table is level and does not rock on its legs. The robotics could be concealed within the table legs and no one would suspect unless the table was moved and the legs needed to adjust themselves to the new place on the floor.

      This is an interesting argument for more robots...

      Now we just need you to prove that you aren't Skynet.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    VS

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Japanese robots are very cute... a little too cute.

    I mean... look at this:
    https://youtu.be/_luhn7TLfWU?t... [youtu.be]

    Just some 'merican smack talk to inspire the japanese to try harder.

    We're over here building skynet... so your work should be cut out for you.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I know the fight will be boring and all but my inner-child is fidgeting restlessly. I hope Japan paint their robot red because for all we know, it will go three times faster.

  • I know Gui Cavalcanti and the merry band at MegaBots, and while I never asked directly about the specifics of their their business plan, it seemed like their relocation from Somerville, MA [Artisan's Asylum makerspace] to the SF area earlier this year was permanent "for the foreseeable future"

  • I'll be quite truthful, a lot of it looked like a mockup and didn't actually move functionally. It was a good mock up, but I don't think it is really "real".

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