We Must Reckon with Japan's 60-Foot-Tall Gundam Robot

The world's largest humanoid robot is currently being built in Yokohama, Japan.

• Modeled after Gundam, a humanoid robot that stars in various anime series, films, manga, and more, the robot will be almost 60 feet tall.

• It won't debut until October, but there is a 64-foot-tall Gundam statue in Tokyo, in the meantime.

At the Port of Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, the world's largest humanoid robot will come to life. Modeled on Gundam, the popular fictional robot that has been the subject of some 50 TV series and movies since 1979, plus a slew of video games and manga, the bot will tower nearly 60 feet tall and feature 24 degrees of freedom. So yes, this thing will be able to walk.

Since 2017, Tokyo has had a massive Gundam statue in its Odaiba neighborhood, coming in at almost a whopping 65 feet. So why stop there? Why not give the Gundam real movement?

Groundwork for the robot is already being laid, as scaffolding is presently in place at Yamashita Pier, where the mega-Gundam will live for a full year, beginning in October. But the engineering challenges will be great, as the current level of expertise in actuation will be pushed to the limit. It's one thing to merely build a bipedal walking robot it's a whole other challenge to build one that's 60 feet tall and weighs 25 tons.

Several videos from the Gundam Channel outline the creation process. In the second installment, we get a tour of where the hands are being designed, built, and assembled. From the metal fingertip to where the wrist will connect, the hand is about 6.5 feet, or approximately one Big Ben Roethlisberger.

Jun Narita, head of design, explains that he's having a rough time of it. Special considerations about the types of material and motors must be taken into account, because otherwise, one hand could weigh as much as 600 kilograms, or over 1,300 pounds. "This weight restriction is like a curse," he says in Japanese.

Narita has to ensure the hands weigh about 200 kilograms, closer to 440 pounds. Any heavier, and excess strain will be put onto the elbow joints when the arms move, meaning it'll likely break and poor Gundam will lose his limbs. In the end, Narita reduced the number of motors used in the hands and decided to build the frame for the hands out of aluminum, rather than steel. The hands can now move, and even have the ability to form the peace sign.

Meanwhile, the overall design work is in pretty capable hands. Masaki Kawahara, lead designer for the Gundam robot, has some serious chops as this is the fourth time he's built a life-sized Gundam. While some of those, including the current statue in Tokyo, are taller than the forthcoming humanoid robot, none of them could walk.