By Brandon Engel
Giant battling robots have been a fixture in Japanese popular fiction for decades now. Known more commonly as mecha, these advanced machines first came onto the scene with Tetsujin 28-Go, a 1956 manga. The popularity of ninjas and the widespread diffusion of VCR technology in the ’70s set the stage for the introduction of Japanese fictional works to a mass audience in the United States. Transformers hit the airwaves in 1984, and the popularity of mecha in the West was assured. What’s even better than huge, dueling robots in fiction is huge, dueling robots in reality – and the world is about to be treated to just this spectacle.
American firm MegaBots, maker of the Mk. II robot, challenged Japan’s Suidobashi Heavy Industry, creator of the Kuratas robot, to an epic duel. The gauntlet was thrown down June 30, and Suidobashi wasted no time in accepting the challenge. However, there’s a twist: Team Japan indicated that it wants the battle to feature close-range, melee fighting. The Americans’ robot is only equipped with long-distance, projectile weapons, so modifications will have to be made to get it ready for the fight, which is expected to take place sometime during the next year.
MegaBots therefore turned to Kickstarter, hoping to raise enough capital to proceed with the needed upgrades. Upwards of half a million dollars was pledged by more than 7,000 backers, allowing the team to add armor, “serious firepower,” a heavy-duty hydraulics system, a new power unit and a speed increase.
It’s not clear though if these enhancements will be enough to prevail over the mighty Kuratas. After all, Suidobashi founder Kogoro Kurata brings considerable passion for the field to the table. He has stated that modern industry was too slow to produce the robots that captivated his imagination as a child, so he opted to begin his own enterprise to build them himself. The Kuratas supports a handful of different weapon systems that can be swapped in and out whereas the Mk. II currently only fires paintball rounds. Japan’s mecha robot is also much faster – at about 6 miles per hour – than the Mk. II, which tops out at 2.5 miles per hour.
Yet the U.S.A. has a standing chance to catch up through its upgrade program. MegaBots has brought on some high-profile advisers to contribute to its project, including Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame and BattleBots creators Greg Munson and Edward P. “Trey” Roski. Taking advantage of their media experience, the MegaBots team will be putting together a documentary on the construction process, which will be available to anyone who contributed at least $10 to the Kickstarter campaign.
Neither robot is fully automated: A human typically sits inside to control them although Kuratas can be operated remotely via smartphone. Kuratas measures a Goliath-like 12 feet tall, but Mk. II towers over it at 15 feet high. Both robots are much larger than previous generations of fighting machines, which were mostly human-sized or smaller. They therefore conform to the image made popular by the Gundam franchise, Mazinger Z and other depictions in anime and manga: large, human-controlled robots that can be driven around like vehicles and possess sophisticated weaponry.
Kuratas is actually available for public purchase on Amazon Japan for the pricey sum of 120 million yen (about US$1 million), but it seems as though no sales have actually been concluded. In spite of this, it has more than 170 user reviews on Amazon’s website, of which more than 100 are 5-stars. This indicates that the prospect of piloting a massive warrior robot has fully captured the attention of the public.
And it’s a good thing at that, a battle as such is a prime opportunity to show off the capabilities of these amazing machines, which surprisingly extend all the way to real world applications. While on the surface level it isn’t always easy to see the extent to which we personally interact with robots, we are encountering robots on a daily basis now in the form of integral networks like those found in home automation and security systems. Moreover, robots with increasingly powerful artificial intelligence can now be found in military combat and hospital settings, as well as being implemented in construction sites and disaster relief efforts.
The Kuratas probably has the advantage in terms of technical sophistication and experience, but the Mk. II robot has a panel of semi-celebrity advisers and a successful Kickstarter campaign backing it. It may be a bit premature to predict the outcome just yet, but popular betting exchange Betfair has MegaBots favored 8/11 to beat Suidobashi. Regardless of the result, this battle will drive consumer interest in robotics and automation technology that hold enormous promise for the future.
