December 22, 2004 4:00 AM PST
Giant robots in the backyard
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The 26-year-old Owens is an Anchorage-area steelworker by day. In his own time, he's hoping to become the creator of a true "mecha"--not a robot, exactly, but a gigantic exoskeleton that can transform its wearer's motions into eight-foot strides and the devastating sweep of a steel fist.
Sure, it sounds like a cartoon or sci-fi fantasy--but so were moon landings 50 years ago. Owens' mecha project is well on its way to completion, its horned red head and pincher hands towering above its creator under a few inches of snow. He's hoping to finish it in time for a test spin at the local drag racetrack next summer, demolishing a few cars to show off its capabilities.
"This is a concept that's been around for a long time," Owens said in a telephone interview. "But I'm not going to wait for the other guy to come out and make it when I've got the capability to do it myself."
The project is a tinkerer's dream, a homegrown technological mania in the same better-judgment-be-damned spirit as the Homebrew Computer Club that ultimately gave birth to Apple Computer and Silicon Valley's microcomputer industry. In Owens' case, the scale simply happens to be more macro than micro.
He's drawing from an imaginative well that has inspired big corporations and the U.S. military, as well as innumerable video game developers and Hollywood directors over the years. A Japanese manga, or comic book, called "Tetsujin 28-go" was published in the late 1950s featuring the adventures of a giant robot, and was ultimately animated and released in the United States as "Gigantor." Hundreds of Japanese anime cartoons such as "Robotech" or "Mobile Suit Gundam" later featured giant robots, often controlled by human pilots.
It's been a common theme in U.S. science fiction, too, although typically on a more human scale. Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel "Starship Troopers," and the 1997 film made from the book, featured soldiers with powerful exoskeletal armor that dramatically augmented their strength. Sigourney Weaver's character in "Aliens" fights wearing something a little like what Owens is trying to build, and powered armor made a prominent appearance in last year's "Matrix Revolutions."
Efforts to replicate these tools in the real world have been less than successful, however. The U.S. Navy and General Electric collaborated
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Seems that at least one prototype Mecha already exists. Though not as big as the one featured in this article.
This article does not note a major 'grassroots' exoskeleton effort -- Servo Magazine's (http://www.servomagazine.com) Tetsujin Challenge 2004, which had seven homebrew exoskeletons compete to lift a 1600 pound barbell. Held at Robonexus (http://www.robonexus.com) in October 2004. Like Neogentronyx, deeds, not words.
Also, big mechanical monsters have been a staple at racetracks for a while - Robosaurus comes to mind as an example - a dino-like monsterbot that can pick up and crush cars.
Finally, last week Toyota showed up a completely functional, 8-foot tall exoskeleton called the iFoot. The system is probably the heaviest robotic biped to date, at least until Neogentronyx gets their mecha working.
If you think that cnet left robonexus out in the cold, imagine how the MPS Team must feel. This Carlos guy was copying so much stuff off of our website, I finally sent him a notification I was going to start charging him for it.
Nothing like being around for five years and having some guy rip off your idea for free.
Mechanized Propulsion Systems has been around almost 5 years as a ?backyard project.? We were the first and only home-grown mecha project. Maybe this new spat of competition will heat up things on our end?
Competition is good.
(www.mechaps.com) has been brainstorming, designing and
building such a thing for the past 5 years
Theo Lane
My first thought was.."Wow..that's great" but at the 2nd sight...it's a very bad idea. Why?
"Think of a couple of guys who juist want to go out on street to say "Hey Mr. President ( a Leader of a Staate....maybe Japan..USA..Germany.what you like)
You are a ******* IDIOT. GO AWAY!"
And a few moments later 3 of these steel monsters come around. Armend with guns or something. I don't like these picture. I'm afraid of it...
I for one do not want to be flattened by a Mecha foot.
I do not trust them as far I can see them..sorry guys but that's my point of view.
But I hope you are right..
farewell and greetings from Germany
I recently saw your article in the Heartland
News Paper. I am intrigued by the potential
for the Mechanized Robotic Exoskeleton
Machines for their usefullness in loading
Cargo and maintaining Extra Large Air and
Space Craft. If you would like to get together to
discuss this matter further please contact me
at the following address. Please submit a
Resume and Educational Transcripts, and / or
Experiential background to the address as
well. Thanks.
3rd Millennium Productions
Mr. Klinton Chace
401 7th Avenue, #210, Fairbanks, AK 99701
between Persons and Organizations who
have built Mechanized Robotic Exoskeleton
Machines (MREM's) but am not completely
convinced that there are enough finished
models to be entered into the competition. If
the issue of Patenting the models are in the
way I can help each party individually patent
their own Product Model before they go public.
This will protect each party from sttealing each
others current models. However, at the time
of the competition each party will not be barred
from learning what new developments they
will need to over come the newly developed
MREM's in the next competition.
Also, a state of proffessionalism must exist, in
these competitions. I will be back in about two
weeks to view these posts and would like to
see proffessionalism mixed with healthy
competition.
3rd Millennium Productions
Mr. Klinton Chace
401 7th Avenue, #210
Fairbanks, AK 99701
conversation I was led to believe that you did not want
further contact with me. I am still interested. So I
decided to not pursue it further. I still own and am
building my business and am now working for another
business at:
Pacific Industrial & Engineering, Inc.
Mr. Klinton L. Chace
Producer, Director
FInancial Coordinator
Project / Program / Bid Development
Apprentiship Programs
Budget Analyst
3202 Industrial Avenue
Fairbanks, AK 99701
Fax: 1-907-456-9897 or
Fax: 1-907-456-3805
"Robert Heinlein's 1959 novel "Starship Troopers," and the 1997 film made from the book, featured soldiers with powerful exoskeletal armor that dramatically augmented their strength."
There was no 'exoskeletal armor' in the movie. In fact, the soldiers of the mobile infantry in the movie had very little armor at all, and had almost no protection (I don't count the modern version of the old 'steel pot' as much protection, either). In the book Starship Troopers, the mobile infantry had powered suits that didn't just enhance their strength, but also allowed them to hop around with powered joints and low-powered jets. Not powerful enough to give them the ability to reach escape velocity from a planet, but it let them hop from one area to another, like in a city, which made them a much more difficult target to hit. As the saying goes, "if you can be hit, you can be killed." If you're a constantly moving and small target, it's going to be difficult to shoot you. The suits also had radio gear in them with multi-channels for those of higher ranks, so they didn't rely on a single radio operator like the movie had which reminded me of the old World War II (the second so-called 'war to end all wars') movies. The 'grunts' only got the one, while the guys with more stripes got an extra one, and the officers still one more.
I'd go into detail about how many ways the movie deviated from the book (the most obvious are the lack of armored suits and the lack of good military tactics) but I won't. Perhaps the person who made the movie had little or no military training or wanted to poke fun at the society Heinlein showed us in the book. Heinlein, on the other hand, DID spend some time in the military.
Starship Troopers was an interesting book by Robert A. Heinlein, but I think I prefered The Moon is a Harsh Mistress more.
Rambling again, aren't I? LOL
- CyberWoLfman
- giant robots in the backyard
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by mortg
April 30, 2006 9:07 AM PDT
- i am 10years old and iwant to make a giant robot
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