Japan accepts US giant robot duel challenge
The US-Japan fight is the result of a video posted to YouTube last week by US company Megabots. Its founders took to the internet to send a challenge to giant robot industry heavyweights Suidobashi. That video, splashed with Megabots' Transformers-style logo, revels in American cliches: the founders, draped in stars and stripes, record it from "the densest concentration of cutting edge robotics research this side of the Mississippi", where the "12,000-pounds of gasoline-powered fury" Mark 2 prototype was made as the result of "American innovation and determination".
Mark 2 is piloted by two people, versus Kuratas' one, and can shoot three-pound paint cannon balls at speeds of more than 100mph ("because we're American, we've added really big guns"). They acknowledge that one company achieved the feat of creating a giant robot first -- Suidobashi -- concluding: "We have a giant robot, you have a giant robot, you know what needs to happen. We challenge you to a duel."
Now, Kurata, draped in his own flag, has accepted that challenge. Taking to YouTube, the bemused founder responds: "It really came out of nowhere, so it's interesting, I'll give them that… But my reaction? Come on guys, make it cooler. Just building something huge and sticking guns on it. It's Super American."
Kuratas absolutely looks to be in the stronger position. As the founder points out, robots are a pretty big deal in Japanese culture. After the tsunami hit in 2011, the government looked into creating a robot-run super farm on the devastated land. In 2013, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata was joined on his travels at the International Space Station by a ridiculously cute (and conversational) humanoid robot, Kirobo. And on the giant robot front, the country already has flashy constructs populating bars and restaurants, often piloted by scantily-clad women, while even kids can get in on the action with robotic mecha suits. Frankly, it's surprising Kurata didn't just send back a video response of himself laughing, surrounded by Japanese robot-related pop culture memorabilia.
But he didn't. He has accepted, and the challenge is due to go ahead one year from now. Megabots is allowing time for both to carry out "modifications to become combat ready", possibly realising the extent of its work ahead.
For Megabots' part, the duel may not have all that much to do with winning. It's instead worth noting that a Kickstarter campaign the US company launched in 2014 hugely underperformed, reaching around $65,000 of its $1.8m funding goal. The point of that campaign was to kick off a new global sport: piloted giant humanoid robots in "epic arena combat!" It has done well now to give that campaign something of a rebirth by launching this tongue-in-cheek public challenge to Japan. Aside from playing on national rivalries, it's a much more intriguing venture than the various annual robotics competitions that tend to see academic research teams piloting slow-moving bots around playing fields. By contrast, with this challenge it seems, anything goes.
Liat Clark