South Korea Unveils Giant Robot To Patrol Its Borders

Hankook Mirae Technology, a robotics company from South Korea, has just unveiled Method-2, their very own giant robot. The huge machine stands 13 feet tall and weighs 1.5 tons. Many has compared its appearance to the Amplified Mobility Platform suit – a robot from sci-fi blockbuster Avatar.

South Korea’s Method-2 robot looks straight out of a sci-fi movie!

This, of course, shouldn’t be a huge surprise to everyone considering that the robot’s designer is Vitaly Bulgarov, a guy who has worked in different Hollywood movies such as Robocop, Terminator, and Transformers.

Yang Jin-Ho, chairman of Hankook Mirae Technology, said:

“Our robot is the world’s first manned bipedal robot and is built to work in extreme hazardous areas where humans cannot go.”

Human-machine interface and arm motion test! "METHOD-2" large manned robot project for which I had a pleasure to make the design. Very fortunate to be part of the incredible Hankook Mirae Technology team. (previously posted as Korea Future Technology since "Hankook" means "South Korea" in Korean Language and "Mirae" means "Future")team. More info at http://hankookmirae.tech #hankookmiraetechnology #koreafuturetechnology #industrialdesign #robot #mech

A post shared by Vitaly Bulgarov (@vitalybulgarov) on Dec 15, 2016 at 3:12pm PST

The massive mech is only about 12 months in development and rumors tell us that the country intends to use it to send a warning against North Korea.

It is believed that it will be patrolling the borders between the neighboring countries.

Additionally, the machine could be useful for various purposes such as construction and warehouse work, or even military use.

Watch this video here:

The creators, however, clarify that a lot of work is still needed to polish the robot’s functions.

Yang shared:

“The robot is one year old so it is taking baby steps. Just like humans, it will be able to move more freely in the next couple of years.”

The company hopes to have Method-2’s final version finished and available to the market by the end of 2017. The mech will be sold for about 10 billion won (around US $8.3 million).