MegaBots Mk. III vs. Suidobashi Kuratas: who will emerge victorious?
We’re already well into the new millennium, but where are
the giant robots of Robocop and Real Steel? Where are the awesome
powered mech suits of Avatar, Alien and Pacific Rim?
Increasing productivity and lights-out manufacturing with
industrial robots is all well and good, but let’s be honest: what we really
want is to see the sci-fi-style robots that inspired so many of us to
pursue engineering in our youth.
Well, here’s your chance to see the closest thing to Real Steel in the real world—and it’s
all for a good cause: generating youth interest in STEM. We’ve been waiting a
long time, but it’s finally here. You don’t have to be an engineer to think
this is awesome—but it helps.

Back in 2015, American giant fighting robot company MegaBots
Inc. challenged Japanese Suidobashi Heavy Industries to a giant robot duel with
their Mk. II robot. Suidobashi’s Kuratas robot accepted the challenge on the
condition that the Mk. II robot be redesigned to improve operator safety and
include hand-to-hand combat capability.
High-profile event sponsors include:
·
Autodesk, which has
supported MegaBots since its founding
·
BattleBots
founders, Greg Munson and Trey Roski
·
Grant Imahara,
famed MythBusters host and engineer
·
Peter Diamandis, founder of the X-Prize, a non-profit organization that
designs and manages competitions promoting technology that could benefit
mankind.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised over
$550,000 USD to upgrade and prepare the MegaBots Mk. III, the duel finally took
place in the most fitting venue possible: an abandoned steel mill in Japan.

Since the multiple rounds of fighting were spread over
several days, the organizers decided to delay broadcasting the fight until
after it was finished. That broadcast
is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 17th at 7pm PT
(10:00pm EST).
Specs on the giant robots are detailed below:
American Contender: MegaBots Mk. III

- Weight: 10 Tons
- Height: 16 feet
- Power Plant: V8 engine
- Top Speed: 10 mph
- Cost: $2.5 Million USD
Features:
- Self-Balancing algorithms
- Fast-response hydraulic valves
- Heavy lifting arms can lift up to 2,500 lbs.
- Software written by IHMC
- Hydraulics: 4,000 psi, 120 gpm
Weapons:
- The Chain of Command: 8-foot chainsaw
- The Dentist: spinning wheel of mechanical teeth
- Justice: metal-shredding grapple
- The Screaming Eagle: tree shear painted to look
like an eagle - Wall Street: large steel drill auger
Japanese Contender: Suidobashi Heavy Industry Kuratas

- Weight: 9000 lbs.
- Height: 13 feet
- Power Plant: ‘diesel-powered
- Top Speed: 6.5 mph
- Cost: ~ $1.4 Million USD
Features:
- Pilot or remote controlled
- 30 hydraulic joints
- Available
in 16 colors as a kit (Over 3,000 have been ordered!) - Automatic target locking, smile-activated
weapons - Glove-controlled articulated humanoid hand
- Software: V-Sido, written by grad student Wataru
Yoshizaki
Weapons:
- 6,000 round per minute twin BB rotary cannon
- “LOHAS” launcher (fires water bottles and
fireworks) - “Kuratas Handgun”
- “Pilebunker”
- Other weapons remain a mystery
Who will win? Should giant robot battles become the next
combat sport?
Let us know below or by tweeting us @engcom_automate.