Would mechs come in real life?

I was just thinking... How long do you think it would take for the japanese (or others) to make the first fully covered military armored suit? Something like Ironman.

My wild guess is 20 to 30 years.

When the info gets released to the public... man... imagine all the otakus joining the army...

I'm not sure about mecha being in a real world, if it happens might be 100-200 years later. In terms of power armor its more realistic and could appear in military service so it might happen.

Impossible with our current technology. I'm a big mecha fan and thus I've researched a bit about it. We have at the moment no efficient source of energy to power up such a suit/robot.

And let's just talk about simple robotics. The problem of balance still hasn't been perfected. As you guys know humans can keep their balance thanks to their hearing and a part of the brain (forgot which) this problem is still very hard to deal with even now for bipedals robots.

Seriously speaking I don't see Mecha ever coming out untill we find a new source of energy or a new way to more efficiently use it.

Either way anime mechas could never exist in the first place; their mass, speed and gadgets would use so much energy that even nuclearly powered it wouldnt be enough. (and let's not forget that it has to be small so it doesn't destabilize the mecha nor put so much more extra weight)

I think that the future of our technology lies in nanomachines.

Well I think the issue of balancing of robots have been adressed, Asimo for example though I have to admit its still in the early stages and would be kind of difficult to be implemented on giant size robot/mecha.

In terms of energy, I'm still not sure about it but from what I heard scientist is already researching an energy source which is the antimatter. It is said that a teaspoon of antimatter can power an energy for a whole city like New York(I have no idea how big New York is..)

Even if we can build mech I wonder what is the advantage of having mech aside of other military vehicle. And considering the cost of building even one would be a lot I don't think a country would build one for military purposes even if they had the technology...

I have to disagree with the point being made against anime-like Mechs being feasible in real-life. Take a look back one hundred years from today. Take a look twenty years back from today. A good majority of the technologies we use today and are part of our daily lives didn't exist, or were in early development stages. Cellphones, personal computers, the Internet, DaVinci (The surgeon robot system). Heck, a hundred years ago people were dying for plagues of diseases we have erradicated today. If you compare these achievements with the achievements produced in other similar time periods, I don't think you will ever see a period where advancements in technology were so vast.

I won't argue whether it's a good thing or a bad thing.

However, it's estimated that by 2050 people will be pushing to marry robots just as nowadays homosexual couples are pushing to marry people of the same gender. It's hard to imagine what we can expect out of the next 50 years, but it's bound to completely change the future of the World. In my opinion, a few technologies we only see in Sci-fi works aren't around simply because those at the head of the world don't think it's time for them to make their debut. Of course that Mechs will completely alter the face of warfare whenever they make their appearances, but they don't have to be bipeds, fly around or have nuclear engines. If you take an Abrams tank, for example, which weighs a shitload, you can take a pretty good guess at what's coming. And if an Abrams can be powered by gasoline, I think we wouldn't have a problem powering a tank-like mecha with a better mobility. Mechs will mean the same to warfare as gunpowder, tanks and airplanes during their time.

Secondly, Nuclear engines being deployed as infantry is a decision no scientist will want to make. The Nimitz class and nuclear submarines are already a high enough risk of being a double-edged sword in a major war among superpowers, just imagine if a dozen nuclear-powered mechs were victims of mines, air strikes or system failure while close to ground troops.

Another point I wanted to make is that Mechs being built for military purposes don't scare me as much as mechs being built for everyday tasks. I'm not talking about maid robots or things of that sort, which we may as well see in some 40+ years, I'm talking about a large-scale robot that can do the work of a dozen or more workers. Take the auto industry, for example. In the old days of manual manufacturing, there were thousands of jobs to be done in a fabric, and workers were needed to perform these. Then, robot arms came along and completely changed the way the auto industry does things. Autonomous Systems are a pretty big thing nowadays, since any production line needs to rely on them to be competitive. Tractors that did the job of farmworkers forced massive migrations from the rural areas to the big cities, which helps explain the overcrowding in many places.


Ugh, sorry, I think I haven't been able to stop typing for a few days.

ZeroShinohara? Shinohara Heavy Industries?

Hmm even if there are mech that would be used in daily tasks especially for heavy tasks, I still think they need to be operated by humans. If the balancing issue of a larger sized mech then I don't see any problem that mech would be available in the future. Unlike mech for military I guess the cost won't be high in building them though it might come to another problem, the weight of the mech itself. Will a large mech be able to move easily around cities despite its weight?

Holy bologny, in all my 8 years of posting under this name, you're the FIRST to make the connection between the Shinohara in my name and Patlabor's Shinohara Heavy Industries. That's quite accurate right there, although the Zero doesn't come from the X-0, haha. Kudos to you, +rep for that.

And I see your point there. I think human operators will still be the predominant way that mechs are used in the future. I don't expect AI to be deployed for a number of ethical reasons, at least not in this field. I mean, if you're going to have a worker robot do and think the way a human would, why would you need humans anymore? I don't think that's something governments aren't going to be taking into consideration.

As for the trouble of having them move around cities, that's definitely another point of trouble. It all depends on what kind of environment we're talking here. If it's a large biped mech, say, 8 meters high or so, I think it wouldn't have a problem staying in solid ground. But if you have something that massive crossing bridges and highways, or in places where electrical wires are spread out, then I think we definitely have a problem there. Back where I lived, all electrical wiring was done underground, so that'd be a nice place to deploy an Ingram, haha.

In all reality, I think biped mechs as we see in Anime won't prove very useful in the real world for many, many years. Not only is the problem of balancing the thing upon two legs, but there's also the mobility factor. If the maximum speed one of these things can go is about 10 km/h and not able to change its course in reasonable time, there's really no usage for them in a military scale. No government will fund a sitting duck, after all. Mechs with wheels and many feet for stability and maneuverability are probably due for those situations.

In fact, there's a robot that's already being deployed that's used to carry infantry equipment and rescue the injured. It has 8 wheels and can make its way through any obstacle, anyway it can. Pretty nifty stuff.

Yeah, I guess that might work but I'm still not sure about it maybe because both of us thinks differently on the sizes of the mech. Heh, the World of Chaos, to me its when the time when the machine goes against us like in the Terminator or the Matrix. I'm sure with the evolution of technologies new type of careers will be born.



Though I don't see any changes in my rep I thank you for the thoughts. Interestingly enough you use the same username for 8 years I tend to use different username in different forums lol.

Yeah I agree with you on the A.I issue and considering A.I is kinda like a sort of software it still have the dangers of hackers and virus infection. So guess there will be also the need of software/A.I engineers and also maintenance team to look after the mechs.

The infantry robot sounds cool, at least its good to hear its more of a support than military weapons. I'm actually not fond with the idea of mech using into military purposes. Kinda reminded me a scene in Gundam 0080 when the president reminded the boy that the Mobile Suits are monster/beasts and the only thing they bring are suffering and destructions.


Umm, why are posting the same thing twice? Anyway I agree even if there is mech it would mostly be slow moving mechanical units though I find your remarks on the swept down by a strong wind funny :)

Lol, it was because, for some reason, I couldn't actually GIVE you rep on that day. Given for great justice now, though, haha.

Anyway, I tend to stick to the same name simply for consistency. Depending on the forum type, I use different names, too, and my gamer tag is also a bit different than my forum name.

Whether or not we'd like to see mechas being used for military purposes or not, I think it's already set in stone that they will, at one point, be. A lot of the technologies we use today were born out of the arms race of the 20th century, like the Internet, Nuclear energy and space rockets. Though we're seeing a big jump in the number of unmanned fighting robots already, of course. I mean, the Predator is nothing more than a robot being controlled from afar. Same for robots that disarm bombs and robot spies.

Oh well, no point in discussing what's to come as of now, I guess.

Thanks for the rep :)

Yeah I agree with you on that. Its something that us humans usually do, things that we use for the purpose of bettering our lives might also be used for for war. But on the other hand they might just send machines to war instead of humans in the future... I think...

Well i think that as long as someone is willing to invest millions of dollars and hundreds of man hours on it, mechs aren't that far off. not so long ago someone made a mechanical suit that multiplied a person's strength by ten. Sure is not armored at all, it's big and bulky, and it has a very low battery life but alot can happen within a short amount of time. Think of the airplane and how it started out and how within 50 years of its invention it was helping the military fight in World War II and how today it is a major part of the military. Like I said, alot can happen in a short amount of time.

This is almost the same as the "are mechas practical"? thread.

And...?

Almost but not the same. One asking if mech would exist and another one asking if there is a mech would they be practical to use.

At least you should try posting something to discuss with instead of post that contributes nothing to the thread. I realized there's a lot of people using Mecha related names but don't post much in the mecha thread...

Yeah I used to, but I stopped posting in this forum since not many people updated the posts usually.

it will come true but none of us will live long enough to see it

and if it comes surely there will be war all over again

SO anyways, mechs in the future? Depends. I mean money, energy supply, resources. I mean are we going to mass produce or no? Make them actually move fast so they are not sitting targets. It's difficult to say. More so likely I believe we may just stick to something more of a mobile armor. I mean for now it just seems like the better and more realistic choice. I mean would you want to walk up to the government's military and give them your plan on making giant robots and fight for you? I mean doesn't it kind of sound stupid if you really think about it. More so ironman theory seems to be a more plausible idea.