Meet six real-life giant mech robots

These machines represent passion projects, a means to fulfil childhood dreams, trading practicality for the sheer joy of making giant mech robots a reality

It's an exciting time to be alive, as once-imaginary concepts transition from the realm of science fiction into reality. One such concept that has materialized is that of mechs - giant, piloted robots. In this article, I spotlight six real-life mechs and their creators. These people followed their childhood dreams, transforming mechs from fiction into reality, despite their impracticality.

Before I introduce those six real-life giant mechs, let’s first define what we mean by “mech”. Mech (or mecha) is a large, humanoid robot, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside. The key distinction here is that these robots are piloted. They are not “worn” like exoskeletons or form-fitting powered armour such as Iron Man's suit. Examples of mechs from fiction include Jaegers from Pacific Rim, titans from Titanfall, mechs from the Armored Core series and mobile suits from Gundam.

Mechs are undoubtedly cool, but what specific problems do they solve? What can they offer that other solutions cannot? Well, the answer is not much. Mechs tend to create more problems than they solve.

First of all, mechs are very expensive and complex machines. The cost of research and development that goes into creating a giant piloted walking robot can be millions of dollars. The fact that these robots walk, instead of using wheels or tracks, significantly increases their complexity, thus adding more cost to the design and manufacturing as well as increasing the maintenance costs.

Many mechs depicted in fiction are primarily combat robots used by the military. However, in a military context, mechs make no sense. A tank is a simpler, cheaper, and more robust design. A mech provides no advantage over a tank. Mechs are generally bigger than tanks, with an average modern main battle tank being 2 to 3 meters tall while almost all mechs on this list are taller than 3 meters thus making them an easier target to hit. Their high centre of mass also makes mechs more unstable. They are also slow, even before adding any kind of armour or proper weapon systems. All these reasons make mechs unsuitable for military applications.

Robotics technology is moving towards greater autonomy in robots. Future robots will be better at operating on their own. If human control is required, then a human operator can remotely connect to the robot and take control. In that case, the form of the robot will follow its function. The robot will take the shape best suited for its role and human form is often not the best form for many tasks. That applies not only in the military context but in civilian applications, too.

Nevertheless, some people just want to build a giant mech robot, despite all the reasons why this is an impractical idea. These machines represent passion projects, a means to fulfil childhood dreams. Here are six such projects that trade practicality with the sheer joy of making giant mech robots a reality.

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What are your favourite mechs? Share them in the comments!

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