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Giant 60-Foot-Tall ‘Gundam’ Robot Takes Its First Steps in Japan

By Emma Taggart on July 31, 2020

From the futuristic Avatar X Lab to drone servers in restaurants, many areas of Japan have fully embraced the realm of robotics. However, the country's latest technological feat is perhaps its best yet. Since January 2020, Gundam Factory Yokohama has been building the world’s tallest robot. Standing 60 feet tall (18 meters), the gigantic machine is currently under construction at the Port of Yokohama, just south of Tokyo.

Although COVID-19 halted the progress of various construction projects worldwide, the Gundam robot has made huge steps towards being finished—literally. The engineers recently released a video, showing the enormous droid lifting and lowering its legs in preparation for its debut in October 2020.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Gundam robot, it’s a popular fictional character from a Japanese science fiction franchise created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise. It was first featured in 1979 on Mobile Suit Gundam, a TV show featuring giant robots in a war-like setting. Since then, Gundam has appeared in over 50 TV series, movies, video games, and manga.

The video—uploaded by Michael Overstreet—shows the Gundam Factory Yokohama engineers on a crane, tweaking various parts of the real-life Gundam robot while they test how it moves. While it isn’t quite ready to fight supervillains just yet, it looks well on its way to completion. Once finished, the mechanical marvel will feature articulated fingers, 24 degrees of freedom (meaning it will be able to walk), and the ability to support its huge weight of 25 tons.

Check out the full video below.