The attack of Giant Robots!!!

I don't think powering a moving arms and legs will require a nuclear powerplant. Advancements in motors, hydrolic systems and myomer-like systems will make for power efficient movements. This advancement won't take as long as the other advance ment we talked in this thread.

The only big problem is the thrusters. In order for those bipeds to fly and leap as high as they do in video games will require one hell of a booster strength, much larger than what we have on jet planes. The initial boost power will have to be intantaneous. What kind of possible power source can fuel such booster in the future? Perhaps a fusion powered ones? i don't know.

Another limitation is what kind of weapons will be suitable and can use energy efficiently. I am assuming gun powder will be obsolete during such time.

Mecha wuould be best suited for securoty duty. A 4 meter tall machine could see over crowds and intimidate them. Armed with a grenade launcer, heavy machine gun (hooked up witha single shot anti-sniper option), paintball machine gun loaded with CS pepper, dazzling lazers and non leathal radio weapons and tear gas grenade launchers. Armor would not need to be overly thick and a platoon of things armed with micro radars and other survelliance equipent could zero in on the location of snipers and ring leaders.

For a pure military aspect, if you could ge tit to move fast enough, a version armed with a multi-function missiel that could act as an ATGM or SAM with fire and forget capabilites could give infanr yin rough terrain or convoy escort forces good fire power.

Interesting....mechs for riot control. Actually there is a anime series called Patlabor that explore the use of Mechs for police work. The view of giant robot is surely intimidating for the average riot mobs.

I have talked to several of my contacts who have actually worked with robots. They claim that a bipeds would certainly be useful as they can climb steeper terain, cross deep waters, cross any type of terrains, fast lateral movements to dodge incoming fire, high vantage points and extremely useful in future urban warfare if properly supported by troops. Bipedals technology advancement are demonstrated in Asimo (thought it does not have a perfect balance as it sometimes falls and have a hard time getting up).

I will have to do my own research to confirm those findings.

Giant Robot is a no-no, it will be a big target.

but think about have 1 just large enough to mount an artillery gun. able to dig itself in to stabilize the gun. it could be useful for terrain you normally wouldn't deploy a gun.

it could be useful is urban combat, like making access into the 2nd floor or other hard to reach places; a modern siege engine. you might disable it but it would have form a ladder of a assault team to attack from an undefended point.

or as a combat engineer; able to fix broken tank in the frontline, or to overcome tank traps as it can move around them. robotic are more expensive, so they won't be the "grunt" force, but can be useful in force multiplier role as now the enemy must plan for more kind to attack (even if you don't use them).

Giant Robot on the open battle field is a big no-no so far. and i agree that it won't be the grunt on the battle field in the near future. However, since they have limbs, their ability to fortify or diggin in will be useful, only for themselves but also for nearby tanks in the batalion. Anyways...there are several scenarios that the robot can be useful. I foresee them as not being a true Giant as in Gundam size but slightly smaller than a tank. They would be constructed of some advance machinery as well as biological-like parts.

Currently i don't have hard data that could forsee the construction or usefulness of robots in battle field. All that we do here is speculate. I hope i will have enough time in the next two months or so to come up with something alittle more concrete to post.

Meanwhile....here is an interesting article i found by accident.

(man...those japanese...hardcore mech lova' i tell ya...)

First of all, let's assume that a walker exists. We can almost most certainly rule out melee combat because if I was an enemy, I will not send infantry on something like that unless they were in an urban environment. Most likely, I send a tank cause I would want armor against something like that (and even in they were in an urban environment any form of melee combat would be destructive to the entire city. Imagine a kid trying to kill an ant inside of a toy city)

So, that leaves a walker with a very powerful gun. Short of recoilless weapons, the walker has a good chance of flipping. So, like Crobato says it would have to have raptor-esque legs in order to handle the recoil (or more than 2 legs).

Which leads me to the greatest weakness of walkers: the fact that they walk. When I see a human, I can trip that person. When I see a tank, I would normally think twice before trying to trip it. Imagine Luke Skywalker and the walkers. That would be the most likely scenario of how they would defeat walkers. The high center of balance is it's folly. As a matter of fact, the more armor the walker has, the harder it will fall.

Walkers are assumed to be like T-rex, lumbering things.

However, we are recently discovering that the T-Rex is in fact, a fast and agile creature. You can see it in the way it does not drag its tail along the ground, as none of the raptors do, based on the fossilized footprints. So they raise their tail up and skimper about.

A mechanical two legged walker can in fact, move much faster over land than a tracked vehicle, mainly because it has less contact on the ground. Conversely however, it means it has to put more weight into that limited contact area so this makes weight more an issue. Bipedal mecha cannot weigh more than tanks because of this, or their feet will sink into the ground.

What I'm looking for something between human infantry and a tank. Its not as invulnerable as a giant robot, but the key to it is mobility.

Mecha-infantry or powered infantry has their advantages over tanks and standard infantry. One is that they can carry larger weapons and ordinance, and carry them over sustained longer distances without any strain. By themselves, they can decrease the need for vehicular transport. Another is that they can essentially better protection against chemical weapons.

Another way to look it is that mecha may arise more for peaceful, construction purposes, like particularly for space stations, lunar or asteroid bases, or even deep sea underwater bases. But as war happens, these machines may be drafted into weapons despite their original intent.

for a 10-12 foot walker, mobility is not a problem. As for triping...it is not a problem either. The robot will use its arms and leg to get back up in a short time. Besides triping a 10-12 foot robot is much harder than you think especially if you install advanced sensor on its legs. The only problem that the robot have to deal with is the durability of the leg. How many hits by weapons of various type before damage.

I think crobato raised a good point about the weight issue. This is why I also think a mech with 10-12 foot height is more feasable....or making it a quadrupeds. the size of the foot can also be increased to spread weight...but that would impede on mobility.

Someone on other forum suggest that the mech can have a supporting role in battle field. For example, medical evac on battlefield. robots can withstand more pounding, stronger, more stamina and no fear.

I don't think there will be giant robots like on cartoons or like on the movie Transformers, but there is a possibility that walking tanks (as seen in Popular Science magazine).


[Post updated November 08, 2010. Removed most of my 12-year-old nonsense]