Kuratas is a rideable and user-operated

mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the mean ...

built by the Japanese company

Suidobashi Heavy Industry Kuratas is a rideable and user-operated mecha built by the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry. Billed as "the world's first giant boarding robot", the Kuratas was unveiled when the website was opened in 2012. It was demonstrated at Wonder ...

. Billed as "the world's first giant boarding robot", the Kuratas was unveiled when the website was opened in 2012. It was demonstrated at

Wonder Festival The , or , is a semiannual (February and August) event held in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is sponsored by the Kaiyodo manufacturing company. The main focus is to display and sell "garage kits", which are sculptures that usually repr ...

. In June 2015,

MegaBots MegaBots Inc. was an American startup company headquartered in Hayward, California that created giant robots and real-world mecha for robotic sports competitions. In June 2015, MegaBots challenged Japan-based Suidobashi Heavy Industry to the wo ...

challenged Suidobashi Heavy Industry to its first robot duel confronting Kuratas versus their

Mark II Mark II or Mark 2 often refers to the second version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant", can be abbreviated "Mk." Mark II or Mark 2 may refer to: Military and weaponry * 16"/50 caliber Mark 2 gun ...

Developers

The Kuratas robot was developed by artist Kogoro Kurata (after whom the suit is named), and

roboticist Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

Wataru Yoshizaki. Kurata stated that he was inspired by the

frequently featured in

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, especially those of the series ''

Armored Trooper Votoms is a Japanese military science fiction mecha anime series produced by Nippon Sunrise, created and directed by Ryosuke Takahashi and featuring mechanical designs by Kunio Okawara. Following directly in the footsteps of Takahashi' ...

'', which he watched as a child. "When I was a kid, I thought there were going to be giant robots in the future. But no matter how long I waited, people were only able to make small robots, like ASIMO. Eventually, I thought ‘I can’t wait anymore,’ and set out to make one myself." Kurata's goal was to create a piece of art that emulated the mecha he had watched growing up. Yoshizaki was brought onboard the project to create the software for the robot's movement and pilot interaction.

Mechanics

The vehicle weighs approximately 4,500 kg, and is approximately 4 meters high. It can be crewed by one person; that operator would sit in the "body" of the robot in a seat, with the control device in front of them. The Kuratas can also be controlled externally by remote control. Kuratas sports a four-wheeled, thirty joint exoskeleton. which is controlled by the pilot or can be controlled remotely. The remote operator uses a 3g touch screen phone as the primary interface. The on-board pilot's

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

(UI) is a

Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...

based device. The vehicle can be "armed" with multiple weapons, such as a 6,000 round per minute twin BB

rotary cannon A rotary cannon, rotary autocannon, rotary gun or Gatling cannon, is any large-caliber multiple-barreled automatic firearm that uses a Gatling-type rotating barrel assembly to deliver a sustained saturational direct fire at much greater rate ...

, a "LOHAS" launcher which fires either water bottles or possibly fireworks, and a powered humanoid hand called the "iron crow" that is capable of picking up objects, and is linked to the pilot by "what appears to be a

Mattel Power Glove The Power Glove is a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Power Glove gained public attention due to its early virtual reality mechanics and significant marketing. However, its two games did not sell well, as it was ...

". The main Suidobashi website lists two other "weapons", a "Kuratas Handgun", and a "Pilebunker". Currently, the Kuratas is not capable of walking, but is able to drive forward and backwards on its four wheels at around 10 km/h. It cannot turn without external assistance. , Kuratas has a price of US$1,353,500 (¥134,555,495, or €1,040,976).

In the media

In January 2014 it was reported that a yellow customized construction type Kuratas was planned to be featured in the then upcoming film series '' The Next Generation: Patlabor''.

References

{{Robotics

External links

Suidobashi Heavy Industry
2012 robots Entertainment robots Individual mecha

Developers

Mechanics

In the media

See also

References

External links