"Kalishnakov builds a Mech! (No joke!)" Topic

Yes, comrade, we have entered the future of ‘80s Saturday Morning TV. The Kalishnakov company (yes, that Kalishnakov) has announced plans for a walking tank. Seriously.
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Leave it to the Russians to make the ridiculous real!

But the most intriguing of Kalashnikov's displays this year is the concept of a "controlled bipedal walker." What can only be described as a 4-meter-tall robot with massive feet and T-Rex-like claws is supposedly intended for "engineering and combat solutions," Kalashnikov says on its website…. The practical implications and feasibility of such a machine remain to be seen.

Impractical. If it is, DARPA would be developing it right now.

Either a bot or an exoskeleton would be really useful for things like weapons loading or disaster response.

Imagine a person being able to pick up 3-4000lbs. That's a submarine torpedo, or a wrecked car, downed tree, whatever.

OK, there's the Flea,

- let me know when we break into the 'medium' weights.

A few years ago, DARPA was working on exoskeletons.

Yeah, I'm waiting for the Shadowhawk personally. It's crap in the game, well, the 2H version is. But I've always loved the look of the thing and the updated visual is splendid.

But IIRC, wasn't the 100 ton Mackie the first actual mech?

Read the novel 'Robopocalypse' by Daniel H. Wilson. The military-grade robots portrayed in the book are believable and grounded in current science and technology. There is one "pacifier" robot in the book (think diplomatic droid without the gold plating) who played a pivotal role in the story. There are other classes of robots described in that novel, including heavy-duty construction and, yes, combat droids.

I hear it's being adapted on the big screen by Spielberg.

Is it too soon to declare that we are facing a big stompy robot gap?

Could be useful for mining and construction, especially with an external power source provided by an umbilical as with a continuous miner or shuttle car. Combat? Not yet; a self-contained power source with sufficient endurance probably does not yet exist.

They claimed Tyrannosaur-like feet. Those feet are nothing like a Tyrannosaur's. Fake news!

I'm not sure those tiny arms wil help much if it falls over.

Looks like something from one of those 'World's Best Dad builds kids Giant Robot playhouse' posts that used to be all the rage a few years ago.

No, it says "massive feet and Tyranosaur-like claws" – on the arms.

Looks more like a High School art project than a prototype.

This is exactly how it started with Gundam, one side starts with it's giant robot. Then the other has to build a better one and then on and on until half the human population is killed in the melee of giant robots destroying your city.