Competitions between countries have officially progressed into the future. As you may have heard, it is confirmed that American’s MegaBot (now Mark III) will go head-to-head with Japan’s very own Kurata mech this month which, to date, we have yet to hear anything about the firm date and venue. Anyways, the folks in China is not going to stand by and watch the fun that is about to happen between the U.S. and Japan. It want some of it too and it was with this desire that inspired some Chinese inventors, collectively called Great Metal and lead by Chinese artist Shiqian Sun, to develop a giant monkey robot named after the Chinese mythical Monkey King.
The inventors of Monkey King had expressed the wish to take on MegaBot, but they will have to wait because MegaBot will have to deal with Suidobashi Heavy Industry’s Kurata first. The thing about this giant mechanical monkey is, it is unlike the other two which is driven forth by tracks and wheels, respectively; it has proper limbs and check this out… it apparently walks on all four, just like a real primate, and so yes, it is quadrupedal and it is also capable standing on just its legs. In fact, I thought it looks a lot more like a gorilla, or King Kong, to be precise which is rather menacing. But how fast it can move and how effective it can utilize those limbs available to it, remains to be seen.
China’s ‘Monkey King’ is not the first giant robot that walks on its limbs, though. South Korea’s Hanhook Mirae Technology has the honor of being the first to produced the first drivable biped robot called Method-2. However, at this point, Method-2 has yet to express any wish to slug it out in a mech battle. Awww… that’s disappointing. I thought it would be interesting to have a four-way match. Another differential feature is, ‘Monkey King’ does not appear to have any firearm; instead it carries a staff as its main weaponry, just like the mythical great sage. In any case, an UFC Mech Chapter doesn’t sound half as bad, does it? Anywho, according to our source, it took the Chinese team just two months and $14 million to build this 5.4-ton, 15-foot gigantic monkey robot.
Image: ppzhu_KEN via Shiqian Sun.