WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Could We Build A Real Gundam?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren Vocal Bomb, and today I've got another classic

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<v Speaker 1>episode for you. In this one, we talk robots, the

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<v Speaker 1>fun kind, the kind perhaps you think of when you

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<v Speaker 1>hear the word robots, despite the fact that you're way

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to encounter, say, a robotic dishwasher in real life.

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<v Speaker 1>Up large Gundam type mechas. Could we create them in

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<v Speaker 1>real life? Hey brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vocal Bomb. And

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<v Speaker 1>if science fiction has taught us anything, it's that giant

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<v Speaker 1>piloted robotic humanoids will eventually be essential to the protection

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<v Speaker 1>of everything we hold Dear invading kaiju from another dimension

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<v Speaker 1>send in the aggres ro beasts from Planet Doom better

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<v Speaker 1>assemble Vultron, And, as James Cameron's Aliens taught us in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty six, even a non combat next suit can

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<v Speaker 1>make all the difference against an extraterrestrial threat. Another influential

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<v Speaker 1>example is our ex seventy eight Dash Too. Gundom, the

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<v Speaker 1>titular piloted giant robot, entered the world in nineteen seventy

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<v Speaker 1>nine as part of Yoshiyuki Tomino's mobile suit. Gundam franchise,

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<v Speaker 1>which remains popular today. But could we build our own gundoms?

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<v Speaker 1>The simple answer is yes. In fact, scientists have been

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<v Speaker 1>tackling various aspects of the technology since at least the

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<v Speaker 1>late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During that time, both

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<v Speaker 1>Russian and American inventors explored the possibility of mechanically enhanced

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<v Speaker 1>exoskeletons to aid humans in various physical movements. Since that time,

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<v Speaker 1>we've continued to see exoskeleton advancements aimed at injury rehabilitation,

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<v Speaker 1>space travel, industrial labor, and yes, even military combat and okay,

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<v Speaker 1>power armour is nice and all, but it's hardly a

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<v Speaker 1>giant robot that stomps around and punches monsters in the face.

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<v Speaker 1>What about true towering mechas well? The answer here is

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<v Speaker 1>also a yes. Within the field of robotics, we've seen

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<v Speaker 1>tremendous achievements in the creation of remote control, autonomous and

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<v Speaker 1>semi autonomous machines. Today, military drones haunt the skies over

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<v Speaker 1>various global combat zones, and space exploration probes have delivered

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<v Speaker 1>wheeled rovers to other worlds. We've even given our wheeled

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<v Speaker 1>robots arms for tasks from bomb dispersal to Martian soil

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<v Speaker 1>sampling and deep sea exploration, but none of these mechanical

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<v Speaker 1>minions boasts legs. Even the humanoid robot developed by NASA's

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<v Speaker 1>Lyndon B. Johnston Space Center didn't acquire climbing legs until

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<v Speaker 1>its second iteration four proper gundams. To one day walk

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<v Speaker 1>the planet will need proper robot legs, and this too

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<v Speaker 1>has featured into the work of various robotics programs. The

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<v Speaker 1>most famous of these is Boston Dynamics, military funded walker

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<v Speaker 1>programs such as Big Dog and Cheetah, and not just

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<v Speaker 1>because they inspired the killer robots in the Black Mirror

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<v Speaker 1>episode Metalhead, because while aerial and nautical robots can get

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<v Speaker 1>by just fying without a leg to stand on, terrestrial

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<v Speaker 1>robots are a different matter. Wheels are great on the

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<v Speaker 1>road and unobstructed landscapes, but legs provide the most versatility

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<v Speaker 1>for diverse environments. True wheelike structures only rarely occur in biology,

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<v Speaker 1>such as the bacterial flagellum, a structure found in such

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<v Speaker 1>species as the Bacterium ecoli. Legs, on the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>are natural selections primary solution to terrestrial transportation, so it

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<v Speaker 1>makes sense to copy evolution in this regard, and biomimetic

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<v Speaker 1>engineers have looked to all manner of legagements for inspiration,

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<v Speaker 1>from humans to millipedes. But here's the catch. Legged movement

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<v Speaker 1>requires a great deal of programming, complexity and power. It

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<v Speaker 1>may feel easy for most of us, but our minds

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<v Speaker 1>and bodies are highly evolved for the task. Even a

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<v Speaker 1>fully piloted gundam, say one where its movements are mapped

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<v Speaker 1>on those of the pilot, would require a tremendous amount

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<v Speaker 1>of biomedic engineering, and semi autonomous units would require the

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<v Speaker 1>dexterity and spatial awareness to avoid the pitfalls of for example,

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<v Speaker 1>the ED two nine in RoboCop, which stopped around on

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<v Speaker 1>two feet but was incapable of navigating s stairs. But

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<v Speaker 1>the mecha dream is strong. While various robotics companies continue

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<v Speaker 1>to develop the necessary technology, sci fi fans also go

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<v Speaker 1>at it alone. Functional mechasuits have strolled the Plaia at

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<v Speaker 1>Burning Man and paraded at various conventions, and Japanese engineer

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<v Speaker 1>Masaki Nagumo built a working, life size model of a

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<v Speaker 1>Gundam in twenty eighteen. The mecca, dubbed l W MONONOFU

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<v Speaker 1>stands twenty eight feet tall that's about eight point five

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<v Speaker 1>meters and weighs seven point seven tons or about seven

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<v Speaker 1>metric tons. It's too big to leave the factory space

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<v Speaker 1>that it calls home, but Nagobo rents it and other

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<v Speaker 1>meccas out for a little under one thousand bucks an hour.

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<v Speaker 1>It's not protecting the world from alien attacks, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>quite a hit for kids' birthday parties. Though one note

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<v Speaker 1>here if aliens or giant monsters do attack, well, meccas

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<v Speaker 1>might not be the best option anyway. As was pointed

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<v Speaker 1>out in the magazine Popular Mechanics, the Jaggers from the

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<v Speaker 1>Pacific Rim films are entirely outclassed by existing aerial bombers

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<v Speaker 1>and attack helicopters. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>could we build our own gun dams? On how Stuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot com written by Robert Lamb, with special thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>twelve year old Lucas from Ontario for sending in the question.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how

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<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four

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<v Speaker 1>more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts

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