9 replies to this topic

[Tankman95]

Or at least that's the goal of MegaBots, inc.

 

 

Just take a look at this video from the kickstarter campaign (even contains clips from Hawken!)

 

By now it's just a tracked, paintball shooting steel cage but I guess we all agree on the fact that even this is totally awesome :D

Edited by Tankman95, 08 May 2015 - 07:29 AM.

[Hyginos]

At risk of sounding excessively cynical:

 

Not impressed. People have been doing stuff like this for years and they never get much further than a basic torso on some tank treads with potato cannons strapped to the sides. This needs to be proofed on a much smaller scale with drones/remote control before the the walking controls are at a point where they are useable on a full scale biped. As for the robot combat part, people have been doing that for years as well in an RC format, and it's much more fun when when you don't have to worry about killing the pilot.

 

IMO we should leave the walking locomotion to Robocup and Boston dynamics until the technology matures enough. At this point if you want mechanized combat your better off with a fifth scale tank with a paint gun on the top that runs off a lawn mower engine.

[Leonhardt]

At risk of sounding excessively cynical:

At this point if you want mechanized combat your better off with a fifth scale tank with a paint gun on the top that runs off a lawn mower engine.

 

But those aren't nearly as cool.

[Hyginos]

But those aren't nearly as cool.

 

Perhaps I am an exception here, but I think a fully functional mini-tank is way cooler than a top heavy kinetic sculpture welded to a bobcat chassis.

 

EDIT: some dude built this in his garage.

Spoiler

Edited by Hyginos, 08 May 2015 - 08:52 AM.

[ropefish]

Perhaps I am an exception here, but I think a fully functional mini-tank is way cooler than a top heavy kinetic sculpture welded to a bobcat chassis.

 

EDIT: some dude built this in his garage.

Spoiler

yup i do agree this is much cooler...actualy

 

maybe if the mechs they had were not on tracks? then yea it would be cool...but...meh

Edited by Reedfish, 08 May 2015 - 11:26 AM.

[KOS_Baconman]

KURATAS is still better

[BluetoothBoy]

yup i do agree this is much cooler...actualy

 

maybe if the mechs they had were not on tracks? then yea it would be cool...but...meh

To be fair, they are claiming that these things will walk... And to be fair, saying the tech for that exists is not really a stretch at all. The big difference is that nobody has really done something like this yet and seen it to completion.

Edited by BluetoothBoy, 09 May 2015 - 06:27 PM.

[Hyginos]

To be fair, they are claiming that these things will walk... And to be fair, saying the tech for that exists is not really a stretch at all. The big difference is that nobody has really done something like this yet and seen it to completion.

 

 

Sorta. The tech exists to walk a bot around, but it only exists on about a tenth this scale and it doesn't work particularly well.

 

With that said, the hard part is going to be powering it more than the control systems for making it walk upright. 

 

IMO by the time you get something like this to work well enough to sell it will be much easier, cheaper, and flexible to do it in VR.

[BluetoothBoy]

Sorta. The tech exists to walk a bot around, but it only exists on about a tenth this scale and it doesn't work particularly well.
 
With that said, the hard part is going to be powering it more than the control systems for making it walk upright. 
 
IMO by the time you get something like this to work well enough to sell it will be much easier, cheaper, and flexible to do it in VR.

Doesn't work very well?! It works VERY well by this point, actually.

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

(This one won't embed for some reason.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w

Walking technology is now advancing much faster than many people realize. Also, on a larger scale, there are a few things to consider.
 
- Adjustments don't need to be as quick because even though the bot is bigger, the physics are the same. The smaller the bot, the quicker the adjustments need to be to stay upright (to a certain degree).
- The walking mechanisms on these likely won't be super-agile - just agile enough for them to stride and stay upright easily.
 
These will (if it comes to fruition) likely move in a fashion similar to the mechs in MWO, and not like the ones in HAWKEN.

Edited by BluetoothBoy, 10 May 2015 - 11:54 AM.

[DreamedArtist]

With a face like this

 

 

I would have funded this 100% too bad I was late on this.