Showing posts with label japan's. Show all posts
Japan's Giant Rhinoceros Beetle Robot
Created by Japanese engineer Hitoshi Takahashi, the KABUTOM RX-03 is an 11-meter-long, 17-tonne-heavy robot shaped like a rhinoceros beetle. The impressive mecha can walk with its six legs, blows smoke from its nose and always gets Japanese crowds raddled when it makes an appearance.
The KABUTOM RX-03 is definitely one of the most impressive functional robots unveiled in recent years, especially since it was designed and built by one man, 60-year-old tech-wiz Hitoshi Takahashi. The Japanese engineer started working on his personal giant robot in 1997, as a hobby, and 11 years later, in 2008, he unveiled his creation to all of Japan, during a popular television show.
The KABUTOM RX-03 was an instant hit and ever since then, Takahashi and his giant beetle mecha have been performing at events all over the country. We’ve seen big, cool-looking robots from Japan before, like the life-size RX87 Gundam or the Tetsujin 28-go aka Gigantor, but unlike them, this one actually works.
Takahashi’s KABUTOM RX-03 may be 17-tonnes-heavy, but it can move with ease, thanks to six diesel-powered legs and supporting wheels. The giant robot may look like it’s walking, but the legs do no nothing more than push the body in the right direction. It’s the wheels underneath that support the beetle’s weight and move it where it needs to go. Althought it features a cool-looking control panel and has enough room inside to carry a group of passengers, the KABUTOM RX-03 can also be operated from a distance, via remote-control.
A lot of people call Hitoshi Takahashi an eccentric for dedicating 11 years of his life to creating a giant rhinoceros beetle robot, but he and I know the true motive behind his long-term project – if Godzilla attacks again, the people of Japan will have something to fight it off with.
Japan's New Robot Rock Band in Future
They are called Z Machinese and they are about to take the Japanese music world by storm. This unique rock band is made up entirely of futuristic automatons able to play guitar, drums and keyboards better than any human.
Z Machines is the brainchild of Yoichiro Kawaguchi, an IT professor at the University of Tokyo, and mechanical designer Naofumi Yonetsuka, who wanted to liven up the music scene by creating something futuristic and exciting.
So they created Ashura, a six-armed drummer who can actually play 22 drums simultaneously and sounds like four people playing the drums at the same time, Mach, a metal-and-wire guitarist who uses 78 fingers and 12 picks allowing him to challenge even the most gifted human guitar players, and Cosmo, who is literally wired into his keyboard and shoots lasers from his eyes. Z Mazhines certainly sounds like a very impressive band, but can they really play a gig? They answered that question on Monday, when they teamed up with Japanese human duo Amoyamo, for an electrifying performance at one of Tokyo’s most popular night clubs.
Photo: AP/Koji Sasahara
The creators of this robot trio enlisted the help of DJ Tasaka, a famous electronic musician from Japan, to create an original song for their big debut. At first, he decided to go for a traditional disco-electro track, but after seeing what they were capable of during rehearsals, he decided to make something truly tough for them to play. “But then they were able to play it,” the surprised DJ told Japanese press. Amoyamo were also surprised by how well the robots played their part, considering they had only rehearsed together once before the big show. But Professor Kawaguchi has even bigger plans for his robot band. He’s shooting for the stars, literally. The IT specialist hopes to one day take Z Machines to play in outer space, like on the Moon or on the North Pole of Mars.
Photo: Nippon News
Z Machines may be all the rage in Japan right now, but they are actually not the world’s first robot band. That title goes to Compressorhead, a group of true metal heads who like to rock out to tracks by legends like AC/DC or Motorhead.
