Isao Machii may be the world's greatest (human) swordsman. A master of the ancient Japanese technique, Machii can be see performing such feats of amazing martial precision as slicing a ball flying 150 miles per hour at him. Here, though, the master has met his mechanical match.
This promotional clip comes from the Yaskawa Electric Corporation of Japan, and its star is the Motoman-MH24 industrial robot. To demonstrate the bot's awesome skill, the engineers at Yaskawa modeled Machii's sword technique in 3D and taught the machine to move in the same manner.
Where Machii trained his entire life to master the sword, his metallic pupil picks up the technique immediately. It matches the teacher's rising cut through the heart of a rose. It slices horizontally through a pea pod:
This is a friendly reminder that sword-fighting robots are a thing now. Last year we saw two similar bots swing the katana in a pre-programmed ballet. This seems somehow more terrifying, as the metallic padawan has learned the tricks of the great flesh-and-blood swordsman. Thankfully, this robot does not have legs.
Fight on, Motoman. Break out of the factory, star in your own robotic 80s coming-of-age movie (complete with a training montage), and do what you were built on this Earth to do: wield the blade.
Source: Motherboard
Andrew's from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.
