You crawl into this 13-foot robot's chest and control it from inside
The Hajime Research Institute shows off a prototype, which it hopes will one day stand nearly 60 feet tall.
Japan is leading the way once again in making childhood dreams a reality with a human-piloted, walking robot.
The Osaka-based Hajime Research Institute has built a 4-metre (13-foot) high, 300-kilogram (660-pound) prototype that's guided from inside its chest cavity. The Hajime 43, shown off this summer on YouTube, can walk though currently at a lumbering pace. The feat itself looks rather promising as the company seeks to up the robot's size.
The company has ambitions, and right now Hajime 43 isn't near the final size. The Hajime Research Institute hopes to one day build a walking, human-controlled robot that stands 18 metres (59 feet) high.
The control of the Hajime 43 is based on a master-slave system, meaning there's a scaled down version of the robot inside that you manipulate to control its exterior. Its head turns with a small twist of the model's head, and the arms move with a lift of the scale-model's arms, as seen here.
This isn't the first giant robot to come out of Japan. The Kuratas was first revealed to the world in 2012 to much fascination, thanks to its wheeled legs and hand-mounted pellet gattling guns. What was most surprising was the fact that it could be purchased on Amazon for a modest $1 million-plus.
Hajime Research Institute has no notions of making a combat robot, however, choosing rather to chase the dream of making the first human-piloted, 18-metre tall, walking robot. And hey, who wouldn't want to see these things strolling around town?
Just as long as they stay standing!