Japan seriously considers building real-life Gundam mechas for Defense

@Ira The Squire: I was speaking primarily in a combat sense. Yes, being a human-shaped forklift has its advantages in the right situations (like the ones mentioned), but it's not going to be practical for infantry.

Never sad it was futile. After all, you instantly turned me to your position, didn't you? Do keep up the good work.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Not sure whether boosting my self-confidence or trying to choke me with sarcasm◊

edited 5th Jul '12 8:21:06 AM by Minister

It's your God, they're your rules, you go to hell." - Mark Twain

I'm being perfectly sincere. Maybe my cynical, despairing tone makes it feel like I'm being sarcastic.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Nah, I'm just a suspicious fiend. *BROHUG*

It's your God, they're your rules, you go to hell." - Mark Twain

Why can't they just make an iron man suit that has a cockpit? If the suit runs the person won't actually be doing the motion so their muscles won't get strained and they'd still be protected from fire.

edited 5th Jul '12 12:14:07 PM by Kostya

Isn't that a Flea?

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

@ Gunheart: As in the video, the dexterity of the soldier with the exoskeleton is not hampered (he even did push ups: not something a robot can do). There's nothing to show that it hinders movement as you suggested.

That's more of a walker. I was thinking of something along the lines of a humanoid shape. It would be kind of like those mechs they had in Avatar only they'd be enclosed.

It's still limited by the power supply, though. It's dead weight without one, and something tells me it's own engine won't work for long.

What you're thinking of is a Mini-Mecha, which strikes me as what this project is really about.

That is properly a technical issue that they're still working on. Not having enough power makes the whole thing entirely useless, not just "restraining movement" bit (how's it going to work as a "forklift" if it is going to go out in a few minutes without a cable? A forklift with cables is still annoying as hell and might as well as use a cableless real forklift.). And that is a problem for just about anything requiring power, really, not just limited to exoskeleton suits (US fighter planes have a similar-in-nature problem during WWII when she fought against Japan).

edited 5th Jul '12 7:59:40 PM by IraTheSquire

Power is something that we haven't really talked about...

I imagine they'd use some kind of renewable source given Japan's lack of extensive resources but I don't know of anything that could properly power this. Another thing is the joints for the robot. I'm guessing they'd use hydraulics of some kind, right?

edit: I'm assuming this is unrelated but I made me think of this thread.

edited 30th Jul '12 7:01:43 PM by Kostya

Humanoid robots are pretty impractical since they require lots of complicated balance systems to keep upright. Even ASIMO can only run slowly.

"Steel wins battles. Gold wins wars."

ASIMO is actually relatively old by now, and technology keeps improving. It is well possible that sooner or later, a humanoid robotic body plan will end up being useful.

I have more issues with the idea that a giant humanoid body plan is a good idea...

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

So, since they specifically mentioned Gundam, I'm going to assume they're talking about an 14-20 meter, bipedal mecha. The operating costs alone would be ridiculous, even if they could get the thing to walk. If they're serious about this, it should be around 6-8 meters in the vein of Votoms. Smaller size would grant some mobility, and would prove a harder target for an air force. Even then, it'd still be an easy target for a group of tanks.

Basically, cool on paper, pointless in actual combat.

Tropers watching movies

Perhaps the coolness is actually one of the main points.

Popular opinion wins or loses wars, after all; and at the moment, popular opinion says that mechas are cool.

edited 31st Aug '12 9:20:45 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

I heard that older models of guns were pretty worthless compared to bows, but the intimidation factor made them still worth having.

Though I'm not sure how well it applies in this age, where combat requiring any sort of experimental superweapons will probably involve nothing but well-trained professionals.

Robotics are cool and so are mechas(in fantasy) but I feel like Japan could use the money/resources they put into stuff like this for much more practical and useful things.

The Gundams will, or at least could, be a symbol. Remember, all is not quite well in the state of Japan at the moment. Their economy, comparatively speaking, has been in the toilet for decades. The strangest things can be used to inspire a country, even things that people at the time thought were going to be transitory and quickly forgotten. A shining example of that is the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Look up contemporary accounts of that thing.

No one thought that it would last. And it is still there, shining at night like a beacon of progress. Who knows, Gundams and their ilk could do the same. Practical uses be fucked, if all we want is things that can kill people, then tanks, apcs and helicopter gunships can do that already and far cheaper. If we want things that can inspire kids to be better engineers and scientists in the future, especially in Japan, then give them Gundams. And then their wee minds can beaver away on ways to make them work.

edited 1st Sep '12 1:48:20 AM by TamH70

That's...actually a pretty good point.

...or if that can't be done, let Shoji Kawamori*

design the ATD-X — inject some of that Macross magic into reality.

Keep Rolling On

Yep. Even from that wiki entry he has practical experience designing and building working, powered,aircraft.

Which in itself makes him better than ninety-nine percent of all engineers in human history. Ya think planes are easy to make? Hell, no. We take them for granted today solely because men and women died in the process of figuring out how they work, got rid of most of the bugs and made them practical.

Early guns were bulky, very hard to make, and very hard to reload (not too mention it took a long time to do so). It was also very expensive, especially when compared to other ranged weapons like crossbows and shortbows and longbows.

That probably means we shouldn't have gotten guns...Oh wait.

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Soory for derail, but to answer your earlier question Carc...

There are actually a few mining towns in Australia that have done just that◊

As for Military Mechas. They would look cool, but they would ultimately be too much of a liability to be useful in direct combat. In disaster scenarios and as a symbol they could be pretty damn useful though.

I'm having to learn to pay the price

I've heard of such dwellings, but that's the first time I've seen a whole town underground!