South Korean robotics manufacturer Hankook Mirae Technology debuted its first prototype piloted mech, the Method-2.
Method-2 stands 13-feet tall, weighs 1.3 tons and wields a pair of 286-pound, motion-tracking metal arms. Hankook Mirae considers this robot the world’s first manned bipedal robot built to work in extreme hazardous areas where humans cannot go unprotected. If you consider this as something from Transformers, Robocop or Terminator, you should know that the company has spent more than $200 million since 2014 to develop the mech with the help of Hollywood SFX designer, Vitaly Bulgarov, whose credits include all the above mentioned movies.
The Method-2 it is more likely to serve as a testbed for emerging mech technologies, rather to be employed in the field anytime soon. Instead, the giant machine could find use in everything from construction and cargo loading to military and SAR operations.
The mechanical suit will reportedly assist in cleaning up and restoring Fukushima after the 2011 nuclear energy accident. To help out in the disaster area, it will need to undergo a few modifications. For instance, the upper body and arm of the robot could be mounted on a wheeled platform with its own built-in power source, and the cockpit would have to be absolutely airtight so as to not let in any radioactive waves.
Engineers tested this four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of theHankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul successfully and plan to release it for commercial usage soon.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO and the fifth richest person in the world piloted South Korea’s Method-2 robot which will be available for sale at $8m in later 2017.
Vitaly Bulgarov designed Method-2 robot, inspired by the film Transformers, Terminator and Robocop, Yang invested over $200 million in the project, and has been working with Bulgarov to make it real.
Credit : http://hankookmirae.tech