Gundams. Can they exist?

[Deleted]

So, recently I got bored and looked up if they can be real. What I found is that Japan is trying to build them. So there is someplace trying to create gundams. If you don't know, Gundams are giant mobile suit robots piloted into battle. They would be really powerful. If someone were to successfully create gundams, I dare say they would be the most powerful military might in the world. No one could launch any missiles that the gundam couldn't intercept.

Do you think we could ever develop the technology to create a real, working gundam?

Sorry I just Laughed at the screen at this part. Would really like to see anything like a mechanical suite stand up to a bunker buster, or even a standard cruise missile.

[Zantos]

Sorry I just Laughed at the screen at this part. Would really like to see anything like a mechanical suite stand up to a bunker buster, or even a standard cruise missile.

Do you honestly think they would actually ram the missile? lol I mean thinking like that yes its funny. They would obviously have some kind of long ranged weapon to shoot it out of the sky.

[Gothicshark]

Gundum - No

Fictional semi magical Piloted giant Humanoid robots, the energy requirements to do what you see in one episode the Anime alone would equal a years worth of current energy consumption by every human on Earth. We currently could do most of what you see in these shows with standard aircraft at much greater ranges with very low energy requirements.

Piloted Robot for non military use - yes

Now it is highly likely that that some sort of piloted robot will be used in industry, as seen in Aliens the loader is a human piloted robot which is used to load cargo. This technology has already been developed and may one day be used.

when you think of large mobile combat vehicles the Tank is the largest, when you look at a modern battle tank up close and personal you will notice something very strange about them. They are not that big, they are heavy, wide, and long but they are not much taller than a person is tall. The reason is simple they are designed for a low profile making them smaller targets.

http://information2share.files.wordp...n-chart-v2.jpg

Piloted Robot for Combat - No

The idea of a piloted robot is cool in fiction, but impractical in actual use.

Besides the work of loading military equipment, military technology is about creating smaller targets Piloted robots are large targets and would generate a lot of heat.

Power-Armor for Combat - Yes

Unlike piloted robots, powered Armor is something that is in development.

The goals for power Armor are to increase protection and comfort to someone in combat, while being able to issue orders and use real time tactical updates from the suit. Battle Armor in Sci-Fi is something a modern military will see someday soon.


Remote controlled non humanoid robot for combat and civilian uses - yes

This technology is already in use, and constantly being updated.

Remote controlled humanoid robots for combat use - no

The problem with humanoid robots is the human body is an inefficient machine, it takes a human 2-3 years to figure out how to walk while most animals can walk in a couple of days. The people designing robots are finding ways to walk like a person, but it is actually one of the most difficult challenges in making a humanoid robot, this means for a basic combat robot R2-D2 would be a better design than any Human shaped robot.

remote controlled humanoid robots for civilian use - yes

Ironically the reason that a walking robot is so popular is because humans like to see it. so for civilian use and entertainment Robots will be made to simulate most human characteristics.

Autonomous humanoid robots for combat - only at human size

Now in a distant future Humans may be replaced on the battle field with humanlike robots, the reason is simple these would be human replacements with human like skills, however true artificial intelligence needs to be developed first.

[Mnevis]

If you don't know, Gundams are giant mobile suit robots piloted into battle. They would be really powerful. If someone were to successfully create gundams, I dare say they would be the most powerful military might in the world. No one could launch any missiles that the gundam couldn't intercept.

Why would you put a person in it? It's more awesome for a cartoon than watching a guy pilot a mech from a windowless room somewhere, but doesn't actually make any sense, especially for intentionally getting hit by enemy missiles.

I don't suppose there's any reason why it couldn't someday be possible. It's big, right? so it doesn't need 'magic' to the same degree as, say, Iron Man's suit. Do they have gas tanks like jet fighters? They're not nearly as aerodynamically sensible, they wouldn't fly all that long with anything resembling conventional technology.

[Xalzel]

I immagine we would see things more like Mech-walkers from the Mech games. They would be much easier to build than a gungdam. (They would still be extremely had to build)

[Bladeface]

japan has already made riot control mobile suits. look up kuratas

[-Ethos-]

Technological advancements are going more the way of Ghost in the Shell. Tachikoma, Fuchikoma, Jigabachi, etc.

[Skayth]

In Nature, the Gundam (in tos) was the predecessor to the mobile suit GM. The only reason why the Gundam itself was so powerful was because it was in the hands of an "evolved" human with psychic powers (spider sense from spiderman), called a newtype. This is shown by Char piloting a Zaku II and being on equal terms with Armuro. Now if we are talking about an invincible suit that can take so much damage, like Gundam Wing's Mobile suits, or SEED, then, Wing's is a new type Metal alloy called Gundanium Alloy, hense called Gundams, while SEED had something called a phase shift, which I never really understood, just basically made gundams ultra awesome compared to everything else.

I am going to go off TOS for this. Can they exist? Yes. Both for combat and as civilian use.

Civilian use: The practicality of them being used on earth would be to used as loaders/builders and such. Yet, they would probably have treads or tires over actual bipedal humanoid. While in space, the more ball like would be better. The bipedal ones would simply be deweaponized military ones, or ones need for tight spaces.

Military Use: I can actually see a bipedal one be of use. Anytime soon? no. For the sake of argument, tanks are essentually evolved into the tread versions then finally the bipedal ones. Simply ground warfare, I can see the only guntanks and zakutanks being commissioned. Nothing like a Zaku or Gundam. As, the earth has gravity and the things would weigh a shit ton and might acutally be terrible on the the knees (yea I know). Now, space warfare. I can see bipedal being used. But only in the sense of actually like Gundam. You have to realize that in the Gundam Universe, they evolved that way in warfare, as it was Human on Human battles between space colonies and the earth. So you have low gravity vs high gravity (colonies vs earth) So a bipedal mobile suit can go from walking around in a colony to battle out in space, and for less effective use on Earth, but still quite usuable. It was made simply for war between humans.

[Najja]

I always figured that the bipedal design of a Gundam was the one thing that really kept it from looking like a reality. The extra controls needed to move something like that would either have to be extremely complex, have unparalleled software, or be some sort of neural link between the suit and the pilot. Otherwise all I see them doing is falling over and being giant targets for enemy fire.

The more likely design is closer to what would easily just be a supped up tank. Either quad legged or with treads, rocket propelled, and would probably not have arms or a head. Limbs just don't really make sense on a mech to me, why bother with arms and hands that have more moving joints and are probably more easily damaged when you can just mount the units weapons directly to the chassis? They can still pivot, spin and maneuver in all sorts of ways, I think limbs would actually decrease their performance.

The only exception here that I can totally see is a small form factor Gundam, something bigger then a skin tight suit like Ironman but much smaller then a full scale. Probably somewhere around 15 feet tall, not capable of sustained flight but could definitely do so for short periods to cross gaps. That propulsion would be more for agility in combat then for transportation. I imagine something where the pilot isn't in what we currently see as a cockpit, they would wear either a skin tight sytle armor or harness and be locked into the Gundam from their back, allowing their limbs to move. From there the harness/skin armor would read the movements of the pilot and those movements would pilot the Gundam.

[semaphore]

They would be really powerful. If someone were to successfully create gundams, I dare say they would be the most powerful military might in the world.

Because they are absurdly unrealistic and built with non-existent supernatural materials.

[Doylez]

japan has already made riot control mobile suits. look up kuratas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=2iZ0WuNvHr8

[Anakso]

Gundams them selves tend to be a fantasy at this stage of technology anyway, a mobile suit could exist yes but gundams tend to have something extra about them that we just couldn't do in today's ages. Like the gundams in Gundam 00 releasing particles that block all forms of communication and radar, or even more so the gundams in Gundam Seed having a special Armour that when they turned it on gave the gundam it's colour and made their machines almost un-damageable until their power ran out.

But having said that, technology has a way of surprising us and since I do not have a degree in robotics I can't just say no that will never exist, hell even if I did I don't think we could say "no we'll never have this technology" because people who say that historically tend to be wrong.

So my final say is: Mobile suits? Yes. Gundams? Maybe. But in order to make either them practical we'd need to give them enough fire power to take out rows of tanks and enough armor to withstand a barrage of assaults from tanks, and enough mobility or range to close gaps quickly. Right now we're closer to the stage of making robots walk up stairs than making robots like the gundam.

---------- Post added 2013-02-22 at 03:31 PM ----------

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=2iZ0WuNvHr8

Ummm...."You will be able to take out enemies with a single smile"

And then the girl laughing as her Gatling gun fires.
This...this robot was not designed for the good guys! How many bad gundam pilots do we see laughing as they take out targets? Pretty much every one of them!

[Hiricine]

If we ever reach a stage where we can have rediculously condensed fuel sources and superstrong, superlight materials we might see it.

As it stands, everything we have is just too heavy. A gundam is probably about the size of our average space shuttle, and just look at how big the rocket is that has to take that thing into space. And the rocket is ONE TIME USE.

[Cernunnos]

Neon Genesis>Gundam

I dont want a Gundam, I want the devil himself, EVA Unit 01.

http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0...y_r7ll_s_1.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VzdfOYS4zG...s1600/eva1.jpg

[dejec1989]

The majority of Gundams, especially newer ones fall more under the Super Robot or atleast hybrid Real/Super category, I do not see us ever making one that can do anything even remotely close to what they pull off in the animes.

People said the same thing about planes (not possiable), now I'm not saying in the next couple of years we will have things like gundams but time will tell

[Cybran]

Neon Genesis>Gundam

Guymelefs > Mobile suits > Gundams

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20..._9-d2zstm5.jpg

[Deleted]

http://suidobashijuko.jp/#bto

Not quite a Gundam but it'll do me

[Anakso]

People said the same thing about planes (not possiable), now I'm not saying in the next couple of years we will have things like gundams but time will tell

Historically I think people who try to predict technology in anyway are probably wrong. If that is trying to predict what technology we won't have or what technology we will have and when. There are outliars and exceptions to both rules though I'm sure. I recall though one prediction was we'd have nuclear powered vacuum cleaners. Don't think that's going to happen xD

[draynay]

I don't think so because...

It's not the Universal Century yet

There are no Minovsky particles to make them practical

We're fresh out of Gundaniam to make them out of


for now we'll just have to settle for Metal Gears

[Powerogue]

They seem hilariously impractical. A giant robot? Especially humanoid ones.

Still, do it anyway, because giant robots are cool!