Ever since we saw that enjoyable yet stupid video challenge of the Megabots team to fight Japanese with their robot, we have been itching to see them fight the technologically superior Japanese bot. Wearing American flags around like cloaks, I thought they were deluded enough to take their robot to a beating in a condition like that. But, instead, it turns out that they do have a plan to make a better robot and no they can’t do it because that would require a lot of brains. They have lured the great NASA into the fray. Things just got a LOT more interesting!
The head engineers Gui Calvanti and Matt Oehrlein created that clumsy looking robot while working on a low budget. They had a failed Kickstarter campaign before that aimed at collecting crowd funds to sponsor a global robot wrestling competition. It failed not because the idea was good, it failed because there wasn’t enough hype around the concept. They realized that their concept needed a boost from a big money fight, so they challenged the Japanese in that video, and it got accepted immediately. The Japanese just can’t wait to kick some American butt in tech matters and considering the low-tech Megabots version, it was surely going to get a disastrous beating.
So, to give the Asians a tough fight, Megabots team have taken some good steps. First of all, a revamped design has been proposed, and it has taken some design advice and other expertise from NASA and Howe systems. The new bigger badder design is now up at Kickstarter again and this time it appears that it will finally succeed as 78,000 $ have been collected in the first 24 hours.
Howe systems and their expertise would be used to create a faster robot with more manoeuvrability options. They claim that once the upgrade is complete, it will be five times faster than what it is right now and twice as fast as the adversary Kurata’s. However, The Japanese must be working on their robot as well so it will likely be upgraded to match American bot’s abilities to say the least.
NASA, on the other hand, is being consulted to make the cockpit of the fighter bot safe in melee combat. They need to ensure that the operator won’t black out when a dangerous blow is landed by the opposition. The key to that is absorbing the shock of a fall. NASA has been implementing this technology in space as they need to make frequent landings, and the shock is much more than the Megabots robot. As well as making a new robot, both Cavalcanti and Oehrlein want to move to a new workshop in Silicon Valley. This will give them exclusive access to technology and development in software and create further hype among the tech circles.
So, it seems that the fight has become a source of national pride for The USA, and it will be similar in Japan since giant robots are a Japanese culture more than anything. No matter what Megabots might be able to conjure, there is no denying that the Japanese robot tech is much more advanced, and they will be itching to have a go at this clumsy monster of a robot. Who will win? Predict it in the comments!