this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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Mecha will always be vastly more impractical in warfare than tanks. But that doesn't mean mecha are not cooler than tanks. I think it's kinda the same idea here.
Humanoid robots are wildly impractical. But they are cool. And cool points win the real war, afterall.
If only wars could be settled in something like a cheesy 90s dance off.
Right? An actual battle-bot would have whatever shape renders it most effective at covering terrain, and killing people. It would look nothing like a person.
Kinda wrong tho .. there is a reason why humanity is still the apex predator
Lol, no, we're the apex predator because we have efficient cooling, can convey complex ideas to each other, and can make and use tools.
We can also eat pretty much anything.. that's a big advantage. Plenty of our favourite foods are poisonous tonamnynsnimals. Chocolate, spicy peppersz.
I was under the impression that surviving poisonous foods was entirely down to either specialisation or mass. Are you saying humans have a generalised immunity beyond our mass?
Fascinating!
Would you be able to provide a search term or link some reading on the topic?
It's because of our brains and ability to design tools. The only real physical upper hand we have on any animals is our endurance which is made obselete by anything resembling wheels.
Because tracks and/or quad rotors are hard to do biologically.
Something like a 6-8 leg mech will likely be extremely practical:
Don’t need to open doors or traverse stairs if you shell the building into a pile of rubble.
In the economics of war, if you did need to sweep a building rather than destroy it, risking a few human lives is probably considered an acceptable loss compared to the cost of humanoid robot development and deployment.
You make some interesting points, but allow me to play devils advocate for tanks with tracks:
Can climb stairs and other obstacles (tracks can already do this)
Can manipulate the environment (why open a door when you can just level the whole building, tanks can push objects out of the way especially if fitted with some sort of dozer front attachment, etc)
Cannot jump (armored mechanized vehicles are very very heavy, and getting the kinetic energy required to launch one into the air in a controlled manner will take a lot of energy, batteries would need to be huge or some sort of nuclear power generator will need to be installed, definitely don't use an engine for that because those forces on an engine will cause catastrophic damage)
Not redundant (while losing a track means the tank will be stuck, it is doubtful that a mech with legs would be able to perform much better. If the mech had more than four legs then maybe, but why cant the tank have 4 tracks? Losing one wouldnt stop the tank either, as it can still make enough contact with 3 to continue in most situations)
Is always prone (mechs with legs will have a taller profile than tanks in most situations, and in cases where a legged mech can go prone to reduce the combat profile the tank will be able to do basically the same thing with a much greater movement speed)
Also, for a moment consider cost. Tanks with tracks are expensive. Theyre expensive to buy and to maintain. However, in comparison to a six legged mecha a tank with tracks will cost comparatively like an econobox car compared to a Maybach.
No, I think tank tracks and wheels are more vulnerable than armored mecha legs. There are just problems with weight distribution and terrain, but those will be solved at some point by advancements in materials and move by wire software. We'll probably see Star Wars like 6 legged tanks first and later 4 and 2 legged mechas.
I think tracks with a variable shape is more practical. Mecha with legs are vulnerable to falling over too easily when they lose a leg, especially with only two. I mean, the best would be a hovertank, but technology isn't quite there yet.
Either way, a bipedal mech will lose out on nearly everything except cool factor versus a tank. Especially in cost.
The problem with tracks is, they are made of exposed complex small parts that can be damaged more easily than anything else on a tank. To make them more sturdy means you have to upscale them, but then the tank becomes heavier and also much slower, because centripetal and centrifugal forces would become insane at speeds tanks drive. The tracks don't go in a circle after all, but centrifugal force wants to make them.
A walking tank can still limp with part of a leg missing, but a tracked tank will be stuck the moment one part of the tracks fails.
And wheeled tanks need lots of space to turn.
This is why the next steps in tank evolution will be legs or hover, but hover has exposed air intakes and exhausts and needs too much energy for the forseeable future. Legs, however, do not.
Also legs may give the opportunity to jump. That would be an enormous advantage over current tank propulsion.
And how are delicate, long legs not a worst and more vulnerable target that tracks?
you can add armor to legs, but not to tracks.
Can you?
How simple do you think would mech legs be?
One option is if you can reduce the need for armor by being able to detect and dodge missiles and shells. You’d theoretically be able to react much faster with legs in short bursts.