Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vocal Bomb, and today I've got another classic episode for you. In this one, we talk robots, the fun kind, the kind perhaps you think of when you hear the word robots, despite the fact that you're way more likely to encounter, say, a robotic dishwasher in real life. Up large Gundam type mechas. Could we create them in
real life? Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vocal Bomb. And if science fiction has taught us anything, it's that giant piloted robotic humanoids will eventually be essential to the protection of everything we hold Dear invading kaiju from another dimension send in the aggres ro beasts from Planet Doom better assemble Vultron, And, as James Cameron's Aliens taught us in nineteen eighty six, even a non combat next suit can make all the difference against an extraterrestrial threat. Another influential
example is our ex seventy eight Dash Too. Gundom, the titular piloted giant robot, entered the world in nineteen seventy nine as part of Yoshiyuki Tomino's mobile suit. Gundam franchise, which remains popular today. But could we build our own gundoms? The simple answer is yes. In fact, scientists have been tackling various aspects of the technology since at least the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During that time, both Russian and American inventors explored the possibility of mechanically enhanced exoskeletons to aid humans in various physical movements. Since that time, we've continued to see exoskeleton advancements aimed at injury rehabilitation, space travel, industrial labor, and yes, even military combat and okay, power armour is nice and all, but it's hardly a giant robot that stomps around and punches monsters in the face.
What about true towering mechas well? The answer here is also a yes. Within the field of robotics, we've seen tremendous achievements in the creation of remote control, autonomous and semi autonomous machines. Today, military drones haunt the skies over various global combat zones, and space exploration probes have delivered
wheeled rovers to other worlds. We've even given our wheeled robots arms for tasks from bomb dispersal to Martian soil sampling and deep sea exploration, but none of these mechanical minions boasts legs. Even the humanoid robot developed by NASA's Lyndon B. Johnston Space Center didn't acquire climbing legs until its second iteration four proper gundams. To one day walk the planet will need proper robot legs, and this too
has featured into the work of various robotics programs. The most famous of these is Boston Dynamics, military funded walker programs such as Big Dog and Cheetah, and not just because they inspired the killer robots in the Black Mirror episode Metalhead, because while aerial and nautical robots can get by just fying without a leg to stand on, terrestrial robots are a different matter. Wheels are great on the road and unobstructed landscapes, but legs provide the most versatility
for diverse environments. True wheelike structures only rarely occur in biology, such as the bacterial flagellum, a structure found in such species as the Bacterium ecoli. Legs, on the other hand, are natural selections primary solution to terrestrial transportation, so it makes sense to copy evolution in this regard, and biomimetic engineers have looked to all manner of legagements for inspiration, from humans to millipedes. But here's the catch. Legged movement
requires a great deal of programming, complexity and power. It may feel easy for most of us, but our minds and bodies are highly evolved for the task. Even a fully piloted gundam, say one where its movements are mapped on those of the pilot, would require a tremendous amount of biomedic engineering, and semi autonomous units would require the dexterity and spatial awareness to avoid the pitfalls of for example, the ED two nine in RoboCop, which stopped around on
two feet but was incapable of navigating s stairs. But the mecha dream is strong. While various robotics companies continue to develop the necessary technology, sci fi fans also go at it alone. Functional mechasuits have strolled the Plaia at Burning Man and paraded at various conventions, and Japanese engineer Masaki Nagumo built a working, life size model of a
Gundam in twenty eighteen. The mecca, dubbed l W MONONOFU stands twenty eight feet tall that's about eight point five meters and weighs seven point seven tons or about seven metric tons. It's too big to leave the factory space that it calls home, but Nagobo rents it and other meccas out for a little under one thousand bucks an hour. It's not protecting the world from alien attacks, but it's
quite a hit for kids' birthday parties. Though one note here if aliens or giant monsters do attack, well, meccas might not be the best option anyway. As was pointed out in the magazine Popular Mechanics, the Jaggers from the Pacific Rim films are entirely outclassed by existing aerial bombers and attack helicopters. Today's episode is based on the article
could we build our own gun dams? On how Stuffworks dot com written by Robert Lamb, with special thanks to twelve year old Lucas from Ontario for sending in the question. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,