As with most weeks in Japan, robots seem to be dominating the news, but this one’s much cuter and waaaay more alarming.
Sakakibara Kikai (or Sakakibara Machines), a well established manufacturing company in Gunma Prefecture, has released a video of their KID’S WALKER CYCLOPS out for a test drive. (No buildings were destroyed by errant missiles in the filming of this video.)
Standing 2.07 meters tall, 1.7 meters wide, and 1.3 meters long (or 6.79 feet tall, 5.57 feet wide, and 4.26 feet long for those of us from those countries who hate counting by tens), the robot weighs 360 kilograms (793 lbs). The machine has a large claw on one arm and a spinning drill on the other.
Completed in March, the KID’S WALKER CYCLOPS has a cockpit the perfect size for a child, with straightforward controls that even developing minds can handle. Using a master-slave setup, your little mechwarrior can move the robot’s corresponding arms up and down and side to side with convenient hand grips. In addition to the adorable arms of destruction, foot pedals are used to “drive” the CYCLOPS, which can move about freely. Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually walk, but slides around, presumably on wheels hidden on the bottoms of its massive feet. Still, it can spin on a dime and get up to a pretty good speed. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t look fast enough for a kid to to out-run a panicking parent. Besides, since it runs on batteries we doubt they’d get very far.
The company is taking rental requests via email. (We assume that you’d have to be in the country though. Sorry, all you tiny mechwarriors overseas, you’ll have to come to Japan to start your rampage.)
Source: IT Media
Image Source: IT Media, Sakakihabara Kikai
▼Here’s the test video. The most surprising thing? How utterly bored that girl looks!
▼And a few snapshots of the mech.
▼The cover opens for fast and convenient access to the world-domination machine!
▼You can almost see the raw power rolling off it!





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