Why not make Moble Suits?

reply to post by Lonestar24


i agree with everyone who said that the whole idea of a mech is incredibly silly at the present time, i mean, lets say they COULD get it to move AND be piloted properly (which would be a very big pain), exactly wat type of weapon would it have? can you imagine haveing a huge minigun or something hanging off one arm? the bloody thing would fall over!

Im open to ideas but i think for now, we won't be seein any mechs

US Army Tests Robot Suits

We could expand upon this type of framework: Add armor, computerized visual displays with external censors and because of the amplified strength of the individual soldier he can carry a bigger, more powerful weapon, and alot more weight including ammo.

Before we talk about Large Mechs we should try something a little more our size. I think we can indeed do this today.

Originally posted by projectvxn
US Army Tests Robot Suits

We could expand upon this type of framework: Add armor, computerized visual displays with external censors and because of the amplified strength of the individual soldier he can carry a bigger, more powerful weapon, and alot more weight including ammo.

Before we talk about Large Mechs we should try something a little more our size. I think we can indeed do this today.

There are very big fundamental differences in concept between a powered suit, a piloted walking mecha, and a walking robot. They may be mechanically similar, but they do not fill the same roles. A robot sentry gun has more in common conceptually with a landmine than it does with an infantry scale combat robot.

(useful) powered armor is closer to regular infantry than to anything else. useful powered armor is powered armor that doesn't significantly hinder an infantryman's ability to fight normally, while affording them greater load bearing capacity and general strength, while still leaving them small enough to go into buildings and use regular sized cover. This is tough to do, but could be a reality in just a few years. the problem, of course, is the power supply. It's generally got to be small gas or monopropellant engines.

A piloted mecha is most similar to dedicated combat AFVs in their tonnage range. For the weight they'll be much slower over flat to moderate rough terrain, slower over most types of rough terrain, more expensive, and will present a less desirable target profile, with less mass available as armor to cover it. Due to their height, they won't be able to fit as high of recoil weapons per ton. This may or may not be a problem; big kinetic guns might be going out of style.

Robotic combat infantry is a good idea. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most difficult to implement things I can think of that could quite possibly be created with today's technology. The problem isn't the chassis, that can take the form of whatever is deemed most useful per dollar spent. The ptoblem is the brains of the operation. Getting a machine that can recognize what should be shot at and what shouldn't could take decades. Hell, I only trust PEOPLE to do that because there's nothing better available. Barring real AI, giving a machine the ability to respond to strange and rapidly changing situations autonomously will be mind-bogglingly difficult.

Given enough money, right now I'm sure any number of companies could rig you up a smart little killing machine that could do the job of killing people in built up terrain far better than a human being, whilst under direct human control. It isn't the chassis that's the problem. Mabye we're a few years out on adequately quick limbs for legged propulsion of such a thing; that isn't the main obstacle. An army of directly remote-controlled vehicles isn't feasible, and won't be in the future.

I think that the best option is that in the meantime, while the more interesting near-future technologies become viable, we work on creating dedicated vehicles more suited to the problems we currently face. There should be a dedicated armored fighting vehicle for supporting infantry in cities and other built-up terrain, while not expecting to face real armour. There should be a dedicated convoy escort vehicle, and a dedicated low cost, close air support aircraft that can be operated from unprepared landing strips.

There's no major problems we face that scream out a need for legs. There are, however, major problems we face that demand good 360 degree vision and high main gun elevation and depression capabilities.

reply to post by WolfofWar


Well, if you know about the elite, then youd know that for them to make a mech it would cost next to nothing as they control everything. As for the fuel, im quite positive that the tech for free energy has already been made.

Well either then cost, wieght would be the biggest factor. Most night armor weights 100 lbs; it would be close to 180 punds with all the exta gear. If you were to get knocked over in that there was no way for you getting up. Plus you need to be sure that this armor it to stop all bullets. Modern body armor can stop MOST bullets but not all of them. There is no body armor out there that can stop a 50.cal bullet

KPI I am very impressed with your knowledge, I get the impression that you are a science or technical professional of some sort in the defence industry. I do generally agree with your view point. The only thing is, I am not entirely convinced that such a complex machine as the killer kitty can be as low cost as a typical motorcycle. In comparison, I feel the motorcycle as compared to the killer kitty is like a calculator versus a cray computer. On the other hand, I do agree that the modern soldier is much more expensive as a singular fighting unit than most people will imagine, and with that in mind, the economics may actually favour the killer kitty. The rate of bringing the numbers to the battlefield is also in favour of manufacture versus birth & training of course. All that being said, the thread has mainly talked of the very large mecha to human and animal sizes. How about going further? What about bird or even insect sized ones? Swarm technology is still in its early stages - at least that's what they let us think - but using the massed/expendability/economics combination of points raised by KPI, they did be alot more fearsome. Could you imagine a swarm of robin size things carrying coin sized high explosive payloads coming at you? Try hitting that with a MG! The only way would probably be a fuel air explosive or something to that effect... which will also kill yourself in the process since they would be pretty close by the time you realise the threat. There is an assumption that the birds are EMP shielded of course. Deployment wise, they can be delivered by artillery or missile somewhat like in a cluster bomb. Targeting by satellite or UAV etc. Of course this is like a seek and destroy or area denial type of system. Due to size/cost constraints they are unlikely (given achievable technical ability in the immediate future) to be very discerning so they can't be used where non-combatants are about of course.

I agree with alot of your comments and I am new so sorry if I anger some users for not quoting them correctly. but I believe that Pilot control would not be 100 percent on them. a guidance computer could be used to help guide what the mobile suit needs to do in a given situation. the articulation of a mobile suit trying to scale lets say a mountain would require controls on so many surfaces that a pilot would be overwhelmed with toggles and pedals and levers...with this kind of controls you may need many co-pilots. but a simple sort of VI or AI could aid the pilot and help with responding to incoming fire, reloading the gun, or even ( I wish) saber fights. maybe even requiring the pilot to pretty much stay in tune with such a guidance computer as the only back draw since the machine would hopefully not be able to react on its own or learn. power sources are indeed capable and are on the way to being refined to such a degree as being viable to something this size. the problem would be transporing suck machines...a Galaxy carrier on of the largest the U.S. has available would probably not even be able to carry even a basic G.M. type mobile suit.

where mobile suits would really have a use I believe would be in outer space where their weight doesnt work against them and many tools and construction capabilites would really bring out their potential..not to mention the military use. Ten mobile suits could do the work of 100 astronauts working with large scale pieces of metal or lunar excavation. I couldnt read all the replies so again as a newbie im sorry for probably stepping on toes. hope maybe some of you agree with me though.

Also I wanted to add that I think that with advanced research something like a mynovsky particle would be a good thing to research for the induction for mobile suit for obvious reasons. but I see that some understand that a big target is hard to hit, but just follow me on this..if with even existing detection technologies I believe that it would be very easy for a mobile suit to position itself in a way to either dodge the incoming shell or block it. I can assume that a mobile suit would be supported by satellites and foreword observers and even radar and other tech that would give it battlefield awareness. these things all working together could render the mobile suits size a mute issue.

I honestly believe that with the right funding something like a mobile suit is feasable, but probably not as excentric or as big as their anime counter parts. maybe half or 3/4 the size would be better. atleast for our current abilities and resources.

Why not have transforming weapons

I thought mobile suits were originally designed to fight in space and not earth. Though I think mountainous terrain would be the best place to have a giant walking robot; the worlds highest altitude predator that isn't a bird is a actually a spider. With that taken into consideration I would expect something more like the spider tanks from Ghost in the Shell. I also seem to recall seeing some article about incredibly dangerous inventions that included General Electric attempting to construct a robot walker a few decades ago; but the project never went anywhere; just like the ford nucleon car which was essentially chernobyl on wheels.

A humanoid giant robot could eventually be much more natural to control if you did something like in G Gundum; where they are all piloted by martial arts experts wearing suits. That sounds even farther off than what they have in Universal Century though. In the original at some point Zeon troops on hover biked just plant bombs on the Gundum to disable it; but later Gundums have an electrical current that runs through the outer shell to prevent people being too close to it. If you just put something like a couple of Tesla coils on key points of a Gundum (acupressure points maybe?) than any rockets fired at it would just be shot down by electricity.

There is also the fact Japan has estimated the cost of building a Gundum to be several billion dollars; which is just for the earlier more realistic ones made of steel and not the ones crafted of Gundanium Alloy made in space.

reply to post by DiogenestheWanker


Well if we are talking gundam then suits were originally designed for land based operations in the UC century. They had to be retrofitted for space combat and even colony maintenance.

The main problem with the idea for a MS is the power supply. I am sure hydraulics have come far enough to make a bi-ped walker.. Just don't expect it to be fast.