Posted on 12/22/2004 11:07:00 AM PST by mhking
Carlos Owens is building an 18-foot tall mech (or battle robot) in his back yard.
Owens, a 26 year-old steel worker in Anchorage, AK, plans on finishing it next summer.
"This is a concept that's been around for a long time," Owens said in a telephone interview. "But I'm not going to wait for the other guy to come out and make it when I've got the capability to do it myself."Owens suggests on his own website, Neogentronix.com, that one day mechs like this would be able to help put our wildfires or go into military combat.He's always had an eye for huge projects, and an inventor's itch. He built a 35-foot wooden version of his mecha when he was 19, he said, as a sculpture project because he couldn't afford the materials to make it function. The latest project, drawing on his experience in the Army and as a steelworker, is more ambitious.
"I've always been building things," he said. "But with the mecha I wanted to do something different than what everyone else was doing. It's hard to invent something new."
When completed, the idea is for the pilot to be able to strap himself into a central, padded compartment, and then control the mecha with the motions of his own body. When the pilot walks, the mecha walks. Raise an arm and open a hand, and the mecha does the same, with 46 possible movements planned.
Sounds like he's watched one too many episodes of Gundam Wing or someother Anime on Adult Swim.
No, it's a redundancy.
We had a guy in Nashville that started building a sailboat in his back yard. It was about 50' and was steel hulled (he was a welder at Nashville Steel). Everyone made fun of the guy and he was in the papers several times. Well, he finally finished it, hired a crane service to lift the boat and haul it two miles to the marina on the Cumberland river. He finished up the interior, got it outfitted with sails, guit his job and sailed down the Mississippi to the gulf of Mexico. He now charters the boat out to vacationers. He had the last laugh.
No, but it is redundant.
We always did some modifications - drop a couple of the smaller weapons and add a couple of extra heat sinks. Not too much cost in firepower and it kept the PPCs from cooking me out of my Marauder (later Marauder II).
Don't mess with Optimus Prime!
Maybe his next project is to build a Madcat...
*poit!*
Yeah but what if it trips and falls over? Can it get back up again?
I built a seven foot high ten million volt Tesla Coil once. Lit it up (10 foot arcs) on a residential driveway. Cops showed up, neighbor lady called them, though UFOs had landed. :-)
Right out of "Aliens".
What happens if he falls over?
But if this thing works, he might end up with lotsa wannabe girlfriends. :)
Something out of Aliens...
I think it's programmed to scream for help like a little girl.
Klaatu Barada Nictu.
Johnny Sokko: "Robot, Fire Finger Rockets!"
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