Japanese Robot Has a Kick!

[Logan Westbrook]

Japanese Robot Has a Kick!

A Japanese inventor has created a robot that can play soccer, albeit not very well.


Hajime 33 is a weird looking machine, standing over six feet tall but weighing in at a mere 44lbs, with a least a couple of pounds of that being eyebrow. What's notable about the battery-operated, remote controlled giant, created by Japanese inventor Hajime Sakamoto, is that he can walk around and kick a ball.

As you can see from the video, Hajime 33 isn't the most accomplished soccer player in the world, and it's going to be a long time before the Robo-Soccer World Cup is on TV, but bipedal robots are notoriously tricky to make work, so building one that can stand on one foot and kick a ball, as well as walk and bow, is actually quite significant.

Sakamoto says that he will apply what he's learnt from this project, as well as the other robots he has built, to making a full-sized, working Gundam within the next ten years.

Source: Wired [http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/humanoid-robot-plays-soccer/]


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[Bassman_2]

Ooh ooh I know why it has massive eyebrows!!!

OK maybe I don't....

 

[GodsOneMistake]

Great now they can kick us to death too, sigh... We just can't kill ourselves fast enough can we

 

[El Poncho]

I burst out laughing when I seen the robot

 

[Cargando]

Looks like it could still beat me at football. Loving the hairdo on it.

 

[ShadeOfRed]

Oh God. That's awesome. Advanced Robotics might be coming faster than we think.

 

[z121231211]

inb4... too late someone already did a "robots are going to kill us all" joke.

 

[Internet Kraken]

That thing looks like it's legs are about to shatter.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Can we replace real footballers with these? I hope so.

 

[Simalacrum]

ermm... I'm a little bit more interested in the last "real sized working Gundam" part of the whole deal...

 

[Amnestic]

Looks like it could still beat me at football.

Same.

As for the eyebrows, either a crazy aesthetic choice from the very bald creator or something to do with balance is my guess.

Sakamoto says that he will apply what he's learnt from this project, as well as the other robots he has built, to making a full-sized, working Gundam within the next ten years.

You hear that, people of the world? Japan's mechas are coming to fruition and they've set a (albeit vague) deadline.

We're all fucked.

 

[SultanP]

They already had a bunch of robots play football against each other long ago.

 

[XJ-0461]

Well, judging by that robot, I guess we won't be terrified when android uprising happens.


Unless he gets that Gundam of his working...

 

[Venatio]

This is actually a great stride in robotics, we've always had problems with working artificial limbs. Its not a far leap from robo parts to a replacement leg for someone who lost it. Suit that thing up and make it stable and it would be a dream come true for veterans coming home from the war who lost their legs to an ied and shit.

 

[Abedeus]

"Let's Go, 33"? Sounds like a line from a mecha anime.


Also, those eyebrows add 5 miles per hour to his speed.

 

[Azraellod]

Can we replace real footballers with these? I hope so.

i agree entirely.

think of all the money that will be saved in the long run.

 

[JediMB]

Robot... KICK!

 

[0p3rati0n]

I laughed when i saw his controller XD

 

[Woem]

Sakamoto says that he will apply what he's learnt from this project, as well as the other robots he has built, to making a full-sized, working Gundam within the next ten years.

You hear that, people of the world? Japan's mechas are coming to fruition and they've set a (albeit vague) deadline.

We're all fucked.

And they will kick our ass in soccer