Blacksmith Talks about His Robot Suit Creation

Kogoro Kurata, created of the Kuratas robot, is an artist and a blacksmith. CREDIT: Suidobashi Heavy Industry View full size image

Want to ride your own huge robot that resembles a futuristic starship trooper? You can thank Kogoro Kurata, an artist who channels the spirit of both superhero inventor Tony Stark and a blacksmith from Japan's feudal samurai era.

Kurata built his eponymous robot suit, called Kuratas, with a group called Suidobashi Heavy Industry. A new video — discovered by robot blog Plastic Pals — shows him describing his creation as more like an armored trooper from the Japanese anime series "Armored Trooper Votoms" rather than the giant human-piloted robots from "Mobile Suit Gundam."

"The point is that AT Votoms doesn't need any specially trained pilot," Kurata said in the video. "Anyone can ride."

Kuratas allows human pilots to control its movements and nonlethal joke weapons through its cockpit. But it also enables remote control through smartphones or motion control technology similar to Microsoft's Xbox Kinect — even featuring a "smile shot" feature that activates its BB Gatling gun.

The robot suit's accessibility to untrained pilots echoes the spirit of a "Star Wars" hover vehicle made by the California-based Aerofex. But whereas Aerofex has no intentions of selling its hover vehicle anytime soon, Suidobashi Heavy Industry plans to offer customized versions of Kuratas for sale in the very near future — assuming you can afford the $1.35 million starting price tag.

Source: Plastic Pals

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.