Bells
06-26-2012, 11:54 AM
The Liberal Democratic Party, a center-right faction in Japanese politics, will hold a live, 12-hour marathon stream on the niconico service on Thursday, and one of the marathon's panels will discuss "the Gundam Development Project, as seriously considered by the Liberal Democratic Party."
Masaaki Taira and Hideki Niwa, two members of Japan's House of Representatives, will speak during the 8:00 p.m. panel with their guest, novelist Harutoshi Fukui. Fukui happens to be the writer of the Mobile Suit Gundam UC novels (pictured below right).
Taira reported last year that his party would consider adding the efforts to realize "piloted, two-legged walking humanoid robots" into the party's platform manifesto. Taira also posted an extended discussion about the feasibility of piloted walking robots on Twitter, using the anime and manga titles Gundam, Appleseed, and Patlabor (pictured left) as examples. Taira broached the topic after meeting with Katsuya Kanaoka, a professor of robotics from Kyoto University.
In 2008, SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), released a report estimating how much it would cost to build a 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall), functioning "Morph-X" combat robot similar to those used in Gundam. The Japanese government funds about 90% of JST's budget, with the remaining coming from the agency's own operational income
The Technical Research and Development Institute in Japan's Ministry of Defense included a ground equipment exhibit titled "Towards the Realization of Gundam (Advanced Personal Equipment System)" in a defense technology symposium in October of 2007. Earlier that very same month, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture reprimanded six of its employees for editing the Japanese Wikipedia encyclopedia article on Gundam during work hours; a spokesperson explained that the "Ministry of Agriculture is not in charge of Gundam."
SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), has released a report estimating how much it would cost to build a 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall), functioning "Morph-X" combat robot similar to those used in the Gundam anime franchise. The estimate assumes that the robot would only have the ability to walk, not fly, and that it would not be equipped with any weaponry. The Japanese government funds about 90% of JST's budget, with the remaining coming from the agency's own operational income.
As translated by the PinkTentacle.com website, the report assumes that the robot would use an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, seven General Electric gas turbine engines (the same engines used in the US$52-million Apache attack helicopters), and 30 400-kilowatt motors (12 in the lower body, 2 in the torso, 14 in the arms, and 2 in the neck). Instead of the fictional Gundarium alloy used in the anime, it would be covered in an aluminum alloy. The report calculates the total cost of the Gundam at 79 billion, 521 million yen (about US$729,700,000). This compares to a price tag of US$187 million for one of the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighters, US$800 million for an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (operated by the U.S. and Japanese navies), or US$2.2 billion for a single B-2 bomber.
The report further points out that a Gundam-sized robot would be 9.5 times taller than an average human, but take up 850 times more volume. Not only would it weigh 43.4 tons according to the fictional anime statistics, but it would apply 1.2 to 1.4 times that weight in ground pressure when it walks or runs. Unless it was shaped like a pyramid, it would sink into almost any ground that would normally support a human. Instead, JST puts forth a more viable multi-legged design called the Hallucigenia 01, and streams a demonstration video of this design.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6HsqDW6yBw/T-naiF6BopI/AAAAAAACwTQ/mwvGhCRzGj4/s640/DSC03661.JPG
Nerd Mode On: This is ridiculous on the point that in the Gundam Universe, the Gundam Mobile suit was only a viable choice due to the discovery of the new Minovsky Particles that disrupted and blocked all sorts of guided weaponry and remote controlled warfare and radar systems at long range which forced the development of closed ranged warfare and eventually the Individually piloted all purpose mobile suits.
On the other side, the fact that a big national party on the mother nation of eletronics and technology on this earth are actually considering discussing the construction of a industry around giant robots is fucking awesome!
Masaaki Taira and Hideki Niwa, two members of Japan's House of Representatives, will speak during the 8:00 p.m. panel with their guest, novelist Harutoshi Fukui. Fukui happens to be the writer of the Mobile Suit Gundam UC novels (pictured below right).
Taira reported last year that his party would consider adding the efforts to realize "piloted, two-legged walking humanoid robots" into the party's platform manifesto. Taira also posted an extended discussion about the feasibility of piloted walking robots on Twitter, using the anime and manga titles Gundam, Appleseed, and Patlabor (pictured left) as examples. Taira broached the topic after meeting with Katsuya Kanaoka, a professor of robotics from Kyoto University.
In 2008, SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), released a report estimating how much it would cost to build a 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall), functioning "Morph-X" combat robot similar to those used in Gundam. The Japanese government funds about 90% of JST's budget, with the remaining coming from the agency's own operational income
The Technical Research and Development Institute in Japan's Ministry of Defense included a ground equipment exhibit titled "Towards the Realization of Gundam (Advanced Personal Equipment System)" in a defense technology symposium in October of 2007. Earlier that very same month, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture reprimanded six of its employees for editing the Japanese Wikipedia encyclopedia article on Gundam during work hours; a spokesperson explained that the "Ministry of Agriculture is not in charge of Gundam."
SciencePortal.jp, a website run by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), has released a report estimating how much it would cost to build a 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall), functioning "Morph-X" combat robot similar to those used in the Gundam anime franchise. The estimate assumes that the robot would only have the ability to walk, not fly, and that it would not be equipped with any weaponry. The Japanese government funds about 90% of JST's budget, with the remaining coming from the agency's own operational income.
As translated by the PinkTentacle.com website, the report assumes that the robot would use an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, seven General Electric gas turbine engines (the same engines used in the US$52-million Apache attack helicopters), and 30 400-kilowatt motors (12 in the lower body, 2 in the torso, 14 in the arms, and 2 in the neck). Instead of the fictional Gundarium alloy used in the anime, it would be covered in an aluminum alloy. The report calculates the total cost of the Gundam at 79 billion, 521 million yen (about US$729,700,000). This compares to a price tag of US$187 million for one of the U.S. Air Force's F-22 fighters, US$800 million for an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (operated by the U.S. and Japanese navies), or US$2.2 billion for a single B-2 bomber.
The report further points out that a Gundam-sized robot would be 9.5 times taller than an average human, but take up 850 times more volume. Not only would it weigh 43.4 tons according to the fictional anime statistics, but it would apply 1.2 to 1.4 times that weight in ground pressure when it walks or runs. Unless it was shaped like a pyramid, it would sink into almost any ground that would normally support a human. Instead, JST puts forth a more viable multi-legged design called the Hallucigenia 01, and streams a demonstration video of this design.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U6HsqDW6yBw/T-naiF6BopI/AAAAAAACwTQ/mwvGhCRzGj4/s640/DSC03661.JPG
Nerd Mode On: This is ridiculous on the point that in the Gundam Universe, the Gundam Mobile suit was only a viable choice due to the discovery of the new Minovsky Particles that disrupted and blocked all sorts of guided weaponry and remote controlled warfare and radar systems at long range which forced the development of closed ranged warfare and eventually the Individually piloted all purpose mobile suits.
On the other side, the fact that a big national party on the mother nation of eletronics and technology on this earth are actually considering discussing the construction of a industry around giant robots is fucking awesome!