South Korea’s Hankook Mirae Technology has created a Gundam-style robot that it’s officially calling the “world’s first manned bipedal robot.” The robot actually took its first few steps this week, marking a big leap in the future of robotics. The robot itself is being called “Method-2.” Such robots have always fascinated people but they have largely been limited to CGI renditions in popular movies like Gundam, Pacific Rim, Iron Man, Avatar, and more.
Method-2 is a proper Gundam-style robot. At approximately 4 meters tall, the robot weighs 1.5 tons with each of its metal arm weighing 286 pounds. This is as real as it can get.
Sure, there’s a lot of room for advancement here but it shows that there’s limitless potential of this technology. Robo-suits like Method-2 may one day be used for military purposes or for rescue operations, construction work, and even deep sea exploration. The possibilities are endless.
A report does mention that there are suggestions about the Method-2 being deployed into the “heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone with North Korea,” but that could take some time, because the Telegraph notes that this robot is still tethered to a power cable and remains a bit wobbly on its feet.
“The robot is one year old so it is taking baby steps… Just like humans, it will be able to move more freely in the next couple of years,” said Yang Jin-Ho, chairman of Hankook Mirae Technology. He added that more than $200 million has been invested in this project since 2014 to “bring to life what only seemed possible in movies and cartoons.”
Filed in ..