Korean Engineers Build 13-foot Tall Manned Bipedal Robot

In a scene reminiscent of Iron Man 2, Korean engineers demonstrate a working manned bipedal robot in a series of Instagram videos posted by its designer Vitaly Bulgarov. The good thing is that these are the good Koreans this time at the South instead of Kim Jong-Un’s squad and seems a lot safer unlike the prototype in Iron Man 2 designed by Justin Hammer. Dubbed “METHOD-1”, the manned bipedal robot is not equipped with any weapons (yet). It is nonetheless quite impressive and has shown how responsive the movements are relative to the user inside considering its size.

Vitaly Bulgarov is a concept designer from California and has extensive experience as a 3D modeller and artist for movies and video games. His previous robot-related design projects include Transformers 4, Terminator Genisys and the Robocop remake. In the series of posts via Instagram, Vitaly chronicled his work with Korea Future Technology, the group who he is working with to create the large manned bipedal robots.

This is not the first time an actual working bi-pedal robot has been publicly demonstrated of course. Back in 2012, the rideable “Kuratas” mech was demonstrated at Wonder Festival. Named after the artist who designed it Kogoro Kurata, the 4 meter tall mech weighed 4,500 kg and carried an equally heavy price tag of ¥134,555,495, or €1,040,976. There is no word on pricing yet for METHOD-1 or its actual destined application, although Korea Future Technologies sees the robot as a potential industrial solution to work in environments that are otherwise harsh for humans and require significant strength.