Are humongous mechs practical?
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The thing is that a 100 ton tank doesn't have nearly the mobility that a 100 ton mech does. The amount of maneuverability that is available simply because of being bi-(or quadri-)pedal in infinately better for a piece of artillery then a track. It's easier to pick up and move when you have actual legs to do so.Valiance said:
These mechs are vastly more practical than whats come out in any Japanese animation, honestly. Four legs is usually better stability than two. The issue is balance and sense of balance itself. Most organisms come with innate senses of balance within them, an equilibrium. Mechanical or synthetic ones lack something I think that makes autonomous walking machines incapable of sustained bipedal, quadrupedal locomotion. Conversely though, there have been fantastic advancements in the field that are slowly progressing to the point of sustained mechanical locomotion.Mekado said:speaking of awesome, but impractical mechs.
From what I can tell the general consensus is that unless they're small, fast, have more than 2 legs, and can beat out tanks, they lose.
There's also the matter of what happens when they get hit by airstrikes. Repeatedly. Cause they aren't exactly the fastest of vehicles.
There's also the matter of what happens when they get hit by airstrikes. Repeatedly. Cause they aren't exactly the fastest of vehicles.
They aren't efficient. At all.
The only way I can see mechs having any military applications is if they are small enough and maneuverable enough to work in an urban environment. Otherwise, they're garbage.
The only way I can see mechs having any military applications is if they are small enough and maneuverable enough to work in an urban environment. Otherwise, they're garbage.
What little I can say for sure, from some simple logic and common sense, rather than engineering knowledge, is that the humanoid mecha you see in anime and games would be useless in combat.
Why? Becuase it's not designed to be useful. It's designed to look cool.
If any army, anywhere, builds a "mecha" that is useful in combat it will most likely not look anything like a human.
And the smaller things people are talking about.. Well, I'd say that those aren't mechas. It's more something like this. [http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p154/Shadowtraveler/motivator1839113.jpg] Which is still fookin awesome, but not mecha.
Why? Becuase it's not designed to be useful. It's designed to look cool.
If any army, anywhere, builds a "mecha" that is useful in combat it will most likely not look anything like a human.
And the smaller things people are talking about.. Well, I'd say that those aren't mechas. It's more something like this. [http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p154/Shadowtraveler/motivator1839113.jpg] Which is still fookin awesome, but not mecha.
If we have big human-like robots, we'll surely have tanks of approximately yhe same size. There's no way mechs would beat tanks. They might be fast, but a 120 mm (probably bigger in this case) HE shell is still much faster, and can be fired several miles away.
Not at the moment. We would need massive engineering breakthroughs for them to be useful enough. But I would never say no.
I for one wouldn't want to have a giant humanoid robot. They are practical if we can get the technology right (and that is HARD) but if you want a really practical walking weapons platform, design it like a spider. A broad back with plenty of space for missile banks and machine guns, not to mention solar panels or some other form of energy collection device (assuming there is an effective form...and there will be. My dad's company reached grid parity not six months ago and is one of the only stock investments trending steadily upwards.). Further, the loss of a single leg would not necessarily fuck it over completely, assuming the pilot(s) and computer systems would be able to adjust on the fly. I actually half-designed a mech like this and I might just dig it back out and look it over again, notate what parts are actually possible now...as opposed to ten years ago, when I started it. ^_^
So make the Mechs out of super light yet super strong materials like a next gen carbon fiber or super strong ceramic/metal alloys bonded at the molecular level. That would take care of the weight issues.Berethond said:
See, this guy has the right idea. All most everyone here is downing the idea just because we can;t do it now or anytime soon. Yet in a hundred years who knows what kind of tech humans will have. Hell, a hundred years ago the idea of cell phones and computers the size of a cell phone was just inconceivable. Yet here they are along with dozens of other techs that humans dreamed up and then created.FoolKiller said:
Oh the other hand this guy had the wrong idea which is very short sighted and narrow minded.ChronoNexus said:
Unless they were faster than tanks and has sufficient anti-aircraft defenses.Junkle said:
The thing is, if you had the technology necessary to make huge mecha even remotely practical (unbelievably light but incredibly hard material and incredibly powerful portable energy sources) what non-psychological advantage would a gigantic mech have over a tank with hoverjets?
Not to mention, when you have the technology to make mechas, the psychological advantage will be about the same as tanks have today. Because, you know, people know how to build it and it's used for warfare. Like tanks are today.kingpocky said:
You also need to twist your abdomen and shift your chest cavity on top of your guts. This can't be accomplished with metal. And any joint is a weak spot, if you had a robot with that many articulations, it wouldn't be able to stand under it's own weight.ThreeWords said:
Uh... mechs can presumably move sideways, crouch, crawl, lie down, and turn around much faster than other vehicles (useful for retreating.) Also, in a mech, you get a much better view. It is presumably highly modular, with easily replaceable parts. You could simply slap a handful of missile pods onto it (or anything you wanted), for various duties. Yet another thing is, you could make use of the mech's modularity to have it firing a bunch of missiles one moment, then simply swap parts for salvage, repair, and building duties the next. In battle, the mech could crawl forward, then lie down in a favorable spot, firing missiles all the while. Mechs, properly done, seem pretty useful to me. When standing, they would make great radio towers, too!
Oh, yeah, and make the mech a lot stockier and industrial than commonly portrayed. As for power, did you know that diesel engines are incredibly powerful?
Also of note, tanks are limited a very small amount of terrain that they can effectively traverse. A well designed Mech could go into all most any terrain needed. Mech's win.
And if anyone has played BattleTech you would also know that the idea of tanks are not dead. Tanks serve next to the Mechs in all most every combat situation as support and back up for offense/defensive maneuvers. An army with both Mechs and tanks is a badass army of awesome power.
And if anyone has played BattleTech you would also know that the idea of tanks are not dead. Tanks serve next to the Mechs in all most every combat situation as support and back up for offense/defensive maneuvers. An army with both Mechs and tanks is a badass army of awesome power.