Disability Technology & News

Gundam robot an alternative to walking?

Wow, it’s about time someone built this thing. I loved reading the Gundam anime series when I was a little kid, and thought it would be awesome to be able to ride inside a robot on day; look like my wish came true. Now if only my wallet size was as deep as Bill Gates. I’ll gladly trade my niffy electric w/c (which is technologically sophisticated in its own right) for a Gundam robot. The top speed would hamper my ability to drag race with my friends in w/c, but being able to say “I can squash you like a bug” is totally worth any speed drawbacks. Though if I owed a Gundam, I’ll switch the deadly looking machine gun for something legal as a water or paintball gun. “Tell me, do you feel luck? muh-haha.”

Robot lets rider walk and fire just like Gundam
MAEBASHI, Gunma Pref. (Kyodo)
The Japan Times: May 18, 2005

An environment machinery maker has developed a robot that can be ridden and maneuvered like one in the animation series “Mobile Suit Gundam.”

The single-seat Land Walker robot, standing 3.4 meters high and weighing 1 ton, can walk forward, backward or sideways at 1.5 kph by operating four pedals, and shoots sponge bullets from two air guns installed beside the cockpit, according to Masaaki Nagumo of Sakakibara Kikai Co., based in Shinto, Gunma Prefecture.

Nagumo, 32, developed the product over two years almost all by himself as he wanted to develop a robot that could be driven and operated to move like Gundam.

He said he thought such state-of-the-art robots as Honda Motor Co.’s ASIMO to be “excellent in technology but they are like Atom (Astro Boy),” referring to the cartoon robot by the late Osamu Tezuka. “I wanted to see a robot on which people ride and operate, like Gundam.”
The Land Walker, which is made to order, costs 36 million yen. The price will be lowered if enough people place orders, he said.

The company’s Web site has received more than 1 million hits since it announced the robot in March.

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