South Korea Robot: Designer Insists Massive Method-2 is Real

"a well known Hollywood designer"

Who could argue with those credentials. Sign me up for 300 "Whose line points" please!

Other sources I have found indicate Vitaly Bulgarov was involved with Boston Dynamics on their robot program, another reason where it is not clear cut if this is actually real and being kept close to their chest or in fact a cleaver hoax.

The article from Live Science is a quite interesting read and is a little more balanced in its attempt to at least track down and contact both Vitaly and the South Korean company apparently developing the robot as well as talk with real scientists and try and prove if this is a hoax or not.

Currently there is just not enough information available as far as I can find to yet prove one way or another if this is real.

I thought (at the very least) it would make for good discussions regarding current and near future state of robotics.

Well the name is stupid. -1 for that but given present day manufacturing and high power servo actuator tech I would say its plausible to create such a machine.

I've thought about it for years. If I had a half million dollars just doing nothing I would be tempted to build such a machine but it would be far simpler and more streamlined in design though.

None of the expensive and time consuming machined major frame and body parts.

Just a basic welded structural steel skeleton with a combination of hydraulic and electric actuators laid out similar to our own human biological skeletons and motor muscles with as basic of electrohydraulic and servomotor operation of the actuators.

This isn't actually that difficult and has been done before with hydraulics, eg - the TV series Robot Combat League which was inspired by the movie Real Steel.

Link

Although these 8 foot tall 1000lb robots worked they had numerous short-comings, including limited mobility and dexterity.

I've read up on it and how some of that was attempted before. One issue I have seen with precision hydraulic positioning and producing smooth fluidic movement like our organic muscles can produce is simply due to the designer having used the wrong valving and related control systems for things.

A perfect example of this is the difference between using a on/off or variable flow/pressure proportioning valve Vs say a rotary valve for doing fine hydraulic cylinder position control. Doing fine position control with widely varying loads and a basic feedback loop using an electrically controlled on/off or proportional pressure/flow control valve is not all that easy.

Whereas with a simple rotary control valve and servomotor it's very easy to do. Your vehicle's power steering uses a rotary valve control for the power steering as do most any vehicles or heavy machinery which as you already know allows for very precise proportional and repeatable positioning with minimal input force regardless of the variations in load happening at the hydraulic cylinders and with smooth fluidic movement on top of it.

The approach I considered was one where the operator wears a sort of exoskeleton control system that has small rotary valves with pressure feedback compensation built in at every joint that directly translate the operators motions into proportional machine motions that way as the operators appendages move the machines related appendages moves plus whenever any resistance is met by the machines appendages during a movement or shift in load the operator gets a direct feedback to his own related joints and body parts from the rotary valves pressure feedback part of their design.

I remember seeing designs very similar to that back in the late 1960's, before I was in high school. We surely believed we would be seeing the U.S. Army roll out a few of those sometime in the 1970's but no such bad luck.

As the largest target sticking up on the battlefield, and containing at least one soldier, I am thinking instant casualty. If on humanitarian mission, then OK, but I suspect the locals would hack into the PLC/HMI, and cause it to run amok, much to their hilarious entertainment. Some fools just can't be helped.

On the other hand, if the glass were bullet resistant, I could see this cleaning up the streets of Chicago of some local trash.

Everyone wants something like this!

https://futurism.com/2018-will-be-big-on-special-forces-exoskeleton-tech/

If you look closely this is supported by tether, it is not free roaming...and is still under development...It's basically a concept...still pretty cool...

http://www.hexapolis.com/2016/12/23/13-foot-mech-suit-robot-fukushima-cleanup/

I've seen bigger....

Ahh, that helps. I didn't see any mentions that the suit was both powered AND support tethered separately (only powered) which makes a big difference and answers a number of questions.

This one's pretty awesome....

http://www.unbelievable-facts.com/2016/05/megabots-v-kuratas-robot-battle.html

I (like others) am still waiting for the matchup (Kuratas is just so elegant and functional in its Japanese Manga-inspired design).

I don't expect a true brawl, it's likely going to be a bit like a series of accuracy, speed and power competitions cumulating in a one on one paint ball battle with a scoring system.

Given the hype and advertising over the last few years I expect a TV special or mini series.

I think they USA team needs some redesign work, it looks a little old school....needs some style....should at least make it to Utube....

Agreed..

the clunky head and "arms" make it appear top heavy as well.

I hope we win.

Kuratas' 'viewport' is much smaller and so he could easily be blinded with one or two well-placed paintballs. If I was driving the U.S. bot the first thing I'd do is blind 'im. After that he's gravy. Blind 'im then take out his hydraulics.

Yea, because there is no way they would have considered adding windscreen wipers or similar to the viewport or other optical sensors.

I wish I had windscreen wipers that would survive paintballs from that gun! Speaking of which, have you ever used windscreen wipers after yours has been plastered with paintballs? (I have, thanks to my two sons. Gawd what a mess! )

The trick is to get that wiper fluid on it as soon as possible before it dries.

Down here we don't have the problem of having our car windscreens shot up with paint balls, although I did have mine plastered with a jam-covered crumpet.

How very British of the vandal.

Yes, you have to nip those crumpets with all speed. Five-Second-Rule you know.

You have not lived until you have been driving through Central Texas (a rather vague description of a region), and had a turkey buzzard strike on the windshield.

If you survive, if the windshield survives, then comes the opportunity to attempt cleaning the stinky bird guts off the windshield, using only the windshield washer and the wipers. Good luck with that. By the way, even if passenger compartment is not compromised by the strike, you better hope you already had your A/C on recirc, because the odor is something like putrid meat, poop, and Limburger cheese on a stove, at least that is an imaginative interpretation of the odeur.

There is no way to prevent throwing up.

I have heard accounts that the vehicle is a right-off as you cannot ever fully get rid of the smell.

Bogans quite often confuse it with next-of-kin. I suggest he ship it to Oz.

The robots in Avatar were cool...

Then there's Robosaurus...

...and Transaurus....

...and Megasaurus....