We're MegaBots, Team USA in the Giant Robot Duel. Our robot fights tomorrow - AUA!

Gundam or Pacific Rim?

Gundam when we want to watch an actual story.

Pacific Rim when we want to get drunk and yell at the screen about how awful the engineering is.

I know one of your intentions with this fight was for it to act as a proof of concept for robot fighting leagues in the future. Have any groups reached out to you and expressed interest in further competition as of yet?

Yep - since we challenged Suidobashi, we've had a ton of groups reach out with interest. You'll hear more about that soon :)

Aside from Gundam, what is your favorite giant robot anime?

Mine's Gurren Lagann.

Megas XLR!

CHICKS. DIG. GIANT ROBOTS.

I have never seen Megas XLR.

Bro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poV2mZuVOjI

Hey guys, thanks for doing this AMA, I've been psyched about this duel since it was first announced. When you made your challenge video, did you know already how Suidobashi would respond? Was it a surprise when he did? How did you react to his response?

We had no idea how he would respond. When he upped the ante we had this moment like... 'uh... hand to hand? We're gonna die.'

But then after that little hiccup we were pretty psyched!

So I was under the impression that the bot fight was between two manned vehicles, even with the evolution of the weapons systems on both rigs and the switch from only ranged combat to a full on melee. Is this true? Were human lives at risk during this fight?

Im going to break the golden rule of AMA and ask two questions. Would it be okay for me to use footage of this battle on my channel FactFile to do a run down of the fight, explaining weapons systems and key moments. It's something a lot of my fans have asked for since I made a video on the subject a few months back.

Since I've already broken the golden rule... lets break it even further. Do you have any plans to fight more giant mechs? Greatmetal's Monkey King would be a good opponent.

Hey! You can totally break the fight down. Feel free.

And let's just leave it at - yes, we absolutely have plans to fight more mechs...

Matt's hair is just fantastic. Do you think that it is the secret of your success?

We can neither confirm nor deny this allegation.

Will you ever consider using actual articulated legs in the future? (such as legs with feet instead of wheels/treads)

Yep. We desperately want to get there, but in order to raise the money to do that we have to prove people want to watch the entertainment first...

After the fight, will you be releasing any additional behind the scenes footage? A documentary about all of the venue preparation and challenges with shipping and coordination and all of that would be amazing!

That's a good idea! We'll look into it! It'd be cathartic to talk about what it's like breaking a 12-ton robot into 6 pieces and shipping it across the Pacific Ocean...

What's next after this fight? I would love to see more people design and build mechs but I just checked and I don't actually have the cash to do it. Do you think the future includes a mech fight league with smaller more accessible robots?

MORE MECH FIGHTS. Time to figure out how to make this a sport...

Hi yall, thanks for doing an AMA! My question is, how did you and Suidobashi work to ensure that the fight was entertaining enough to viewers while not putting the lives of the pilots in danger (or at least minimizing the risk of serious injury) ?

We spent the last two years talking to Suidobashi about how the arena would be set up, what the rules were, and the like. Ultimately, both teams were committed to putting on an awesome fight, and not murdering the other pilot, so we touched base regularly.

We specifically tested a bunch of weapons to figure out which ones caused a lot of damage without risking death - that's why you won't see our "Dentist" weapon make an appearance, even though it was one of the most damaging in our tests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVxNSu6DoKY

What's the most time and most money intensive systems​ for the machines?

And do y'all have any ideas on how to deal with these bottle necks?

The most money-intensive system is the hydraulic valve system in Eagle Prime. The high-speed valves that let us do coordinated motion with the arms and legs cost us between $3500 to $5000 per valve, and we have 26 of them... and then we have custom hardware that each valve mounts to.

The most time-intensive system is probably the design of the arms and legs. It takes a lot of time to make a balanced design that allows for both fast robot motion and heavy payload capability.

We're hoping to address the money issue by testing out a bunch of different valves to see if we can find a less-responsive (and way less expensive) valve that we can standardize on, and the time issue by developing modular components we can reuse across multiple robots!

Have you ever shouted "its morphing time" before you geared up ready to pilot? What about playing music while getting dressed?

Miles has been known to blare things like Ride of the Valkyries through the speakers at opportune times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXOkNErMfBY

What other names were you considering before MegaBots?

BigBots. I kid you not.

Fluff question: are you going to post the pictures submitted for the viewing party patch giveaway online? Because I’m probably going to be wearing boxers, american flag socks and sunglasses, and several beers. Not sure how SFW you want these to be.

Real question: have you looked into 37mm launchers for fireworks/chalk/flare rounds as secondary weapons? Totally legal, and look totally awesome.

We're at least going to post the winner! We may also post some honorable mentions depending on how epic they are...

Are the robots insured?

The robots are not, but the company is. We get insurance similar to most high-risk shows like Mythbusters, and sports like NASCAR.

EDIT: The robots are insured while they're being shipped, etc. They're not insured against damage when they're going into a fight, obviously.

I have a pretty more serious question regarding this topic. As hyped as I am to see two massive mechas fight each other (childhood's dream), I was wondering, if you will try to expand your business into other areas. Let's say you gather enough interest and funding for the future. Are you planning to create mechas only for sports or also for things like search and rescue?

It's definitely something we've talked about. At the end of the day, we're building out our ability to make robots right now, and we can apply that technology to just about anything. We could definitely see ourselves reapplying the tech later on!

Hi guys (It's Jan!)!!!

What is the status on a puppy for the office?

No puppy yet. We had a shop kitten and we think it was eaten by a feral cat. Hayward is rough.

given the amount of effort it took to get this fight to happen do you really thing you could make a sport out of this?

Yes. It might have to look more like stock cars and everyone building similar robots first, though.

Hi!

I am super hyped for this fight ever since it was originally announced.

Do you think mecha fights could become bigger form of entertainment? Like fighting leagues, more competitions, more national/international teams?

When building, how big of a concern was pilot safety? Im assuming its probably one of the biggest concerns.

Looking forward to tomorrow :)

Pilot safety has been our top concern for the past 2 years, and we think we have some pretty great answers for it. We're working off of Monster Truck and NASCAR roll cage standards, Army ingress/egress requirements, and a whole host of regulations for other industries.

Our goal for a long time has been to turn this into a sport, it's just required us to learn a ton about how to make robots, how to put on events, and how to share all of our progress with our audience in video form. We think we've found an answer!

Just how much leaky hydraulics do you have to deal with on a daily basis? I've done a bunch of stuff with hydraulics and it seems like everything always leaks, and I was wondering if it was the same for a giant robot arm as well as smaller stuff.

We worked with Parker Hannifin to switch over to O-Ring Face Seal fittings instead of JIC fittings, and it's made a huge difference. Our MK2 unit leaks a little bit, all the time. Eagle Prime typically doesn't leak... until there's a big leak because a fitting unscrewed. We're working to see if we can make it harder for the fittings to unscrew, because otherwise we love ORFS.

When does the anime come out?

We do have a comic book...

Will the fight have remote controlled allies? Or will that be off the rules? Will there be any rules? Let there be robot blood!!!

No comment!

Favorite feature of Autodesk Fusion 360?

The fact that we can show complicated CAD assemblies to people using the app on our PHONES. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS.

Our eventual goal is to build MegaBots into a giant fighting robot sports league.

Asking as somebody who knows nothing about this stuff. Wouldn't the cost be fairly prohibitive?

It seems like it would be pretty pricy to create one of these things, even as a passion project for a team with a lot of disposable income.

Counter-point: These robots are WAY cheaper than Formula-1 cars. They're more comparable in cost to monster trucks which get beat up quite a bit every event.

What Matt said. They cost a lot, but it's comparable to NASCAR and Monster Trucks, which means it's achievable! We're also working to bring the cost down as much as we can through R&D.

Will Guzzilla participate/observe the Giant Robot Duel?

My sources point to 'no'.

Has MegaBots Inc. sent Taguchi Industrial Co., Ltd. an invitation to watch the twitch Livestream?

Ooh. That's a good idea.

What powers these robots, and could they be hazardous if damaged? How long can they go for without needing refueling/recharging/sacrificing a new goat?

We run on a 430 horsepower gas engine. Gasoline leaks, oil leaks, air pressure discharges, and electrical shorts are just some of the ways this could be hazardous. We burn about 2.5 gallons per mile, and have about an hour's run time on a full tank of premium.

will you consider letting more countries in on this later? You could get a whole elimination competition.

YEP. More on that soon.