As you may know already Suidobashi Heavy Industries accepted the challenge issued by Megabots on the condition that it will be only a melee combat with no weapons involved. Earlier this week the Megabots team issued another response in which they say they will want to fight in both ways and will further prepare and upgrade the robot for this purpose.
The Americans say that they are assembling a team of engineers and fabricators and will be launching another – hopefully more successful – Kickstarter campaign soon to raise the funds required for this massive purpose – both literally and figuratively. Read more about the challenge here.
August 18 update: MegaBots have launched a campaign to raise US $500,000 to beef up the robot. They plan to upgrade their hydraulics, develop some basic melee combat weapons and make a faster and more agile tracked platform capable of reaching speeds over 20 km/h (15 mph). To ensure odds they’ve also recruited Greg Munson and Troy Roski founders of BattleBots, Mythbusters host Grant Imahara as well as engineers from NASA and IHMC Robotics.
