Japanese engineers from the Gundam Global Challenge project tested the movements of an 18-meter robot in the port of Yokohama.
A recent video shows how the mechanism, not yet equipped with a head, takes its first tentative steps. The footage in the video is shown at an accelerated pace, so it is not known how long the procedure actually took.
The construction of a 25-ton humanoid robot was announced in January 2020. The design of the robot replicates the appearance of the protagonist of one of the longest-running anime franchises, Gundam. The robot's story brings together dozens of TV series, OVAs and feature films produced by the Japanese studio Sunrise. Gundam was used as the basis for Transformers and other popular films.
The robot is being developed using the open source Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo simulation software. It is reported that the mechanism will have 24 degrees of freedom, which means that it will be able to move on almost any solid surface.
The robot was supposed to be presented to the public in October, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, its presentation was postponed indefinitely.