Video: South Korea Creates Giant Functional Power Armor

Creating giant robots that humans could pilot to fight in, carry heavy loads with, and generally look cool while driving inside of has been the dream of many sci-fi nerds. Among the various entertainment platforms to showcase the potential use of such machines include the military power suits of Avatar, the heavy loader mechs shown in Ridley Scott’s Aliens, and practically every single Anime about giant metal suits ever. Well, South Korea just proved that this is no longer a concept that exists in the realm of fiction since it just created a functional power suit.

The mech suit was created by Hankook Mirae Technology, a robotics firm that’s located in outskirts of Seoul, South Korea, Phys.org reports. The company claims to be the first to create a functional example of a robotic suit and based on the demo footage released, it certainly seems to be on the way to becoming a fictional object come to life.

Standing at 4 meters or 13 feet in height and weighing 1.5 tons, the robotic giant husk called Method 2 is certainly something to behold. The pilot would sit in the torso, safe behind a screen of glass and metal. Operating the arms and feet appear to be similar to operating a crane or other heavy construction machinery.

It’s still a long way off from becoming the smoothly functional machine as showcased in the movies, but it can do simple things like take a few steps forward and back, and move the arms in several directions. The remarkable feat of engineering also appears to be similar to that of mechs found in movies and cartoons because it was designed by sci-fi movie veterans.

On that note, the creators would also like to point out that more than the machine’s striking appearance, its core technological innovations are what really make Method 2 a wondrous achievement, Telegraph reports. Enabling a giant bipedal mech to move is amazing enough, but to do so without decent reference materials other than books, movies, or cartoons makes it practically a miracle.