First it’s “Oh, here’s a neat toy with AI that lets it track targets.”, then it’s an army of 50-foot tall versions of this thing with on-board laser canons and missile launchers, actively subjugating humanity like Skynet in the Terminator series.
In all seriousness though, this looks pretty cool. If you want one for yourself, its currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, linked below:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/1085341127/geio-a-fps-battle-bot-with-visual-recognition
MegaBots’ MK3-class Eagle Prime is ready and raring to go for the upcoming Giant Robot Duel against Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ Kuritas. Eagle Prime weights 12 tons, is 16 feet tall fully extended, seats two pilots, and is powered by a 430 HP V8 LS3 Engine.
Go Team USA!
In case you didn’t hear the news, US-based MegaBots, Inc challenged Japan-based Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a giant robot duel, a challenge which was readily accepted, with the condition that the two bots engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Now, MegaBots has turned to Kickstarter to fund the transformation of their current bot from this:
To something more like this:
The funds are going towards practically overhauling the bot with armor, new weapons, and a custom track base replacement courtesy of Howe & Howe:
Check out the project at www.kickstarter.com/projects/megabots/support-team-usa-in-the-giant-robot-duel
Boston Dynamics: building the robot overlord army one noisy, galloping WildCat at a time.
Meet AlphaDog, Boston Dynamics’ latest load carrying quadrupedal robot. This nightmarish fusion of machinery and the souls of abandoned canines can carry a payload of up to 400 lbs on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. It’s also extremely good at reorienting itself, looking as pissed as something without a face can as it does so, and the kicks that threw its predecessor, BigDog, for a loop are completely ineffective; shoving still works, thankfully. While it still looks like a monster from Silent Hill, at least this model doesn’t sound like a swarm of evil bees. Also, it kinda looks like an ATAT, which is always cool.
This craziness is from a movie called Endhiran, and it’s the most expensive Bollywood movie ever produced. It also happens to be India’s highest grossing movie of all time. Is it hard to see why? BTW, there’s also dancing (it’s Bollywood, what do you expect) that’s thankfully cut from this video.
From Defense Contractor Raytheon comes the XOS 2 robotics suit. A powered exoskeleton, it greatly increases the strength of the wearer while being lighter and requiring 50 percent less power than its predecessor, the Scarcos XOS. This new tethered version is tied to its shore power source and would be used to lift heavy objects for logistics purposes, such as munitions and supplies, and will be applied to the theater of operations in about 5 years. A non-tethered combat variant, including only the lower half to help alleviate the strain of heavy equipment, will be applied 3-5 years after the tethered variant. There is no word, however, on when a variant suitable to combat Alien queens will be introduced.
While the Raytheon Company is busy working on an adult sized robotic exoskeleton, Japan already has child sized mechs! Yes, I said child sized. The ‘Kid’s Walker’ from robotics manufacturer Sakakibara Kikai is a prototype bipedal mech designed more as a child’s toy than the perfect tool to smash a genocidal alien collective, even with its $21,600 price tag. Luckily, for those of us on a budget, it will be available as a rental at some point. Then your kid could show the neighborhood bully who’s really the boss.
