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Japanese launch 4.5-tonne gun-toting robot controlled by smartphone

This article is more than 11 years old
Kuratas is 4 metres high and capable of firing 100 rounds a second – or even working as a cleaner or firefighter
Kuratas is launched at the Wonder festival in Tokyo YouTube/重工 水道橋

It is 4 metres (13ft) high, weighs 4.5 tonnes and fires 6,000 ball-bearing pellets a minute, yet this ¥100m (£816,000) monster could be Robomop as well as RoboCop.

The massive robot, called Kuratas, is controlled either by a human pilot in a mid-torso cockpit or by a smartphone connected to a 3G network, and was unveiled at the Wonder festival in Tokyo on Monday.

The diesel-powered machine could, it was claimed, be used as a trundling "ecofriendly" weapons system (top speed 6.2mph) – or customised for more peaceful functions such as firefighting or cleaning, according to designers at Suidobashi Heavy Industry.

Just take care while dusting ...

This article was amended on 30 July 2012 to correct the price, which was originally given as ¥1m.

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