3.5 tons of fun —

Archax is a $2.7 million pilotable robot for the ultra-wealthy

Japanese startup Tsubame has 5 units up for preorder.

Scharon Harding - 10/4/2023, 7:25 PM

Robots are already cleaning our homes and patrolling our cities. Now, they're ready to embody our favorite mecha-themed science fiction indulgences—if you have 400 million yen (about $2.7 million) to splurge.

Tsubame Industries, a Tokyo-based startup, currently has five Archax units, a pilotable robot, available for preorder, as reported by Reuters this week. Tsubame unveiled the robot this summer and plans to demo the robot at the Japan Mobility Show from October 26 through November 5. Tsubame won't just have a giant robot on display; the robot will demonstrate movement of its upper body and arms, according to a Google translation of an August report from Japanese publication Robot Start.

Built with human-like proportions, Archax has moving rear legs and front legs and uses front-wheel steering. It also has a movable head (left and right), waist (left and right), shoulders (up and down), elbows, wrists, and fingers.

Wherever Archax is displayed or stored needs a lot of headroom. The robot is 14.8 feet (4.5 m) tall. It also weighs a monstrous 3.5 tons, and Archax's frame contains iron pipes, aluminum alloy, and steel plates. The frame is covered in reinforced fiber plastic and ASA 3D-printing filament.

Robot or mecha suit

The Archax can be used like a robot, where you control the arms, fingers, and other movable parts remotely. Controlling a 3.5-ton machine is no small feat; one of Archax's modes puts the owner inside the robot's chest, where a cockpit holds all the controls needed to command the mecha.

In vehicle mode, Archax can move up to 6.2 miles (10 km) per hour, Tsubame claims. The robot will widen its stance slightly for added stability and appear hunched.

Inside the cockpit, you'll find two joysticks, two pedals, and four displays—connected to the robot's nine cameras—to help you navigate. The screens are also supposed to display information helpful for controlling the machine, like the angle at which it's tilted, the speed at which it's traveling, and how much power the 300 V DC battery has left. And there's a touchscreen for going from vehicle mode to robot mode.

Advertisement

Safety considerations include an emergency stop button, having the robot stop automatically if its main body is tilted more than 5 degrees, and an emergency escape hatch by the cockpit's rear. The robot was also reportedly tested by various safety standards organizations, such as The International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Organization for Standardization, and Japanese Industrial Standards.

From science fiction to reality

Archax gets its name from the Archaeopteryx, a "bird-like dinosaur" sometimes referred to as the first bird (although it's now believed there could be earlier bird ancestors), per the National History Museum.

"Japan is very good at animation, games, robots, and automobiles, so I thought it would be great if I could create a product that compressed all these elements into one," Ryo Yoshida, Tsubame's CEO, said, per Reuters.

Since its reveal, people have been comparing Archax to the Gundam franchise. It's not just because of the robot's pilotable nature—Tsubame's CTO, Hironori Ishii, helped direct the life-size Gundam attraction currently displayed in Yokohama, Japan, as Anime News Network noted in August.

Currently, Tsubame is focused on entertainment applications for its bot, but Yoshida said Archax could one day be used for space development, disaster recovery, and other uses.

Tsubame, which has nine employees, can't yet mass produce this gargantuan, costly product, so it's targeting the ultra-wealthy, like those who buy supercars, company representatives said, per Anime News Network. Archax even uses car paint for a metallic texture, according to Tsubame.

Tsubame is currently accepting preorders for the robot in Japan, but would-be buyers will have to wait more than a year after placing an order to receive the extravagant new toy. The long wait time and the robots' "preorder" status, however, leave some room for skepticism around the product's delivery.

If you don't have the patience or, more realistically, $2.7 million for such a thing, you can check out Archax via video instead:

Listing image by Robot Start/YouTube