Six-story tall giant robot? Yes, please
My roommate’s an interesting guy. He’s into Gundam. Like, room-filled-with-models into Gundam. And he’s dragged me into his robot otaku world. So I had to mention this project when it came up. A roboticist from the Future Robotics Technology Center in Japan, Takayuki Furuta, has done cost-estimates of what it would take to build a full-size, functional Gundam robot. Some impossible parts, namely the alloy Gundanium and solar furnaces, would be replaced by modern analogues, aluminum alloy and 7 Apache gas turbines, respectively. The whole thing will cost roughly US$742 million, a small price for a giant robot, I suppose. Furuta hopes to have a 4-meter version up and running by 2011, if I’m still nearby in 3 years, I might have to make a pilgrimage.
(via Matt Yglesias) (image from moogs)
April 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The costs were published http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/01/725000000-gundam/
on 11th January and the cost was $724,310,000 not $742 million.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Wired reported it as $742m, but the Science Portal article cited by Pink Tentacle calls it at $724m with a better cost breakdown. Unfortunately, I can’t find any direct news release, and there’s nothing on FRTC’s website. Either way, when you’re talking that kind of money, $18m cost overrun isn’t so bad.