ICYMI: This awesome Lego robot is giving us ‘Pacific Rim’ flashbacks
When you think of science fiction, a couple of motifs come to mind immediately. One of them is robots; another one is human-machine integration. Those two things came together spectacularly in the 2013 film Pacific Rim, which pitted giant alien monsters against giant mind-controlled, human-piloted robots. In the film, pilots donned suits and linked minds to control their jaegers, but lest you think this all belongs to the realm of movie fiction, we’ve got news for you: One intrepid designer has created an exosuit connected to a tiny Lego robot and gotten us that much closer to realizing our giant robot defender dreams.
Exosuit is the terminology used for a sort of mechanical full-body brace, something that allows users to augment or completely take over for the human body. Some recent representations in sci-fi come from the films Elysium and Edge of Tomorrow, but they’re actually used in real-life science too. Beyond development for military use, exosuits are also used to help people who are physically differently abled regain motor functions. We also have mind-controlled machine/human parts too, another feature expanded upon in Pacific Rim.
All of those things came together for designer Danny Benedettelli, whose “Cyclops” project consisted of him building and programming an exosuit and an accompanying robot. Unlike the jaegers of Pacific Rim, Benedettelli’s robot is much smaller and also made of Legos. However, it’s able to mimic his movements, and the result is a little Lego robot shadow.
Benedettelli’s made many more Lego, robot, and Lego robot-related stuff, so check out the rest of his work here. Meanwhile, we’ll be here twiddling our thumbs until Pacific Rim 2 finally comes back to theaters.
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