Earlier this year, we reported how Japanese engineers were building a colossal mecha from the sci-fi franchise Gundam. In exciting news, a video has been released showing the the full-sized, advanced humanoid robot based on the RX-78-2 Gundam, taking its first steps.
The Gundam anime series by Yoshiyuki Tomino, was first shown in Japan in 1979 and has become of the country's biggest ever television franchises. The series has played a huge part in Japanese popular culture and, over the last 4 decades, has produced over 50 TV series and films, and a large franchise of Gundam figurines and computer games. Gundam has even served as the inspiration for US series such as Transformers and films like Pacific Rim.
This isn't the first giant Gundam character to be built as lead designer of the current project, Masaki Kawahara, has built three life sized models in the past. However, what makes this project unique is that it is the first to be able to actually move.
Built by engineers at the Gundam Factory Yokohama, the robot, based on the RX-78-2 Gundam, will be able to walk and move its arms and head, making it in effect a 'real-life' Gundam.
Once finished, the robot will weigh around 25 tons and reach around 60ft tall. The robot will also have fully movable hands and fingers, with which it will grasp a massive samurai sword.
While it may be imagined that such a project would be mostly of interest to sci-fi fans, and those with a natural inclination towards 60 foot moving robots, there has also been a lot of serious interest from programmers and engineers. This is particularly due to the fact that the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulation software that is being used to develop the robot is open source and so the project can be followed in real-time. This is, of course, of great excitement to all engineering aficionados both in Japan and abroad.
While it was expected that the full project would be completed soon, the CoVid-19 pandemic has held back the project by a significant time period and it is unclear when it will be complete. It is great though to see the project making progress and the gigantic machine taking its first steps.
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