Giant Robots and the such – exploring the possibility of a real life Gundam

Following the release of the information regarding Japan’s plan to build a giant robot…Oh wait…they never actually planned to build anything. So take back those conversation topics about “Did you hear? Japan’s going to build a gundam!” and confused questions of “but how will they get the gundanium?”, because when taking into account the plausibility of building and running an actual Gundam-like robot, the possibilities involving current technology is quite...impossible.

The armor:

Putting aside the need of gundanium alloy, one would need to speculate on a possible substitute and while the Japanese Science and Technology Agency suggested that aluminum alloy would be feasible as a light-weight alternative, one would also wonder why carbon fiber wasn’t chosen. Considering carbon fiber can exhibit more than 10 times the maximum tensile strength of aluminum alloy, it is more heat resistant, lighter and will not fail under very small cyclic loadings, this makes it perfect for defense against children throwing rocks. Is there anything that makes it a worse choice than aluminum alloy? Maybe it was the cost.

The computer system:

One would think a gundam would only require a simple computer to run it, since it was only built to walk. However a US$1.5 million computer used to run 30 400KW motors (maybe even simultaneously) most definitely sounds like a steal!

The propulsion system:

So this thing has 30 x 400KW motors. So it can walk. So what? What about flying? Even in the anime the robots moved more like cars instead of utilising the human walking motion. If our walking motion was used, theoretically a pilot inside would feel extremely sick after the high gforces of the constant upwards and downwards motion. So unless a carlike motion was adopted, this rules out any chances of pilots. (Not to mention where are we going to find those coordinators.)

So unless we dig up some ancient super-technology, this writer doubts that a Gundam could be built in the foreseeable future. But in the mean time >insert propaganda for recruiting people into robotics design at unsw<

Next week -> Gundam is totally possible!