Speecys' fuel-cell powered robot
By Gareth Edwards 
posted Jun 29th 2005 8:56AM
posted Jun 29th 2005 8:56AM
Japanese firm Speecys has had an eponymously-named robot out in kit form for a while now,
but they've just announced an update that creates what they claim is the world's first fuel-cell powered bipedal
robot. The Speecys-FC comes in a little taller and heavier than its 50-cm, 3.7kg predecessor, and also gets a
hefty kick up in price, to Y2.62 million ($24,000) from Y500,000 ($4,500). We wish we could say it does something
cooler than walking around and being powered by hydrogen, but unfortunately that's about it. The hydrogen is fed
to the fuel cells from a 16-mL tank in the robot's head, though, so you know what to shoot at should it ever get
delusions about world domination.
16 litres sounds very big to fit in the head of 3.7 kg robot.
Kaboom!
Kaboom!
16 litres? In its head? That has to be a mistake. How much "slightly larger" that 50cm is this thing?
Come on, how hard can it be to mount a surface-to-air missile or some sort of death ray? A robot just isn't a robot unless it's armed, I say.
I'm guessing that's supposed to be milliliters.
What, no one's made the 'energon' joke yet?
It's 16 LITRES. The hydrogen-absorbing alloy used for fuel storage allows the volume occupied by the hydrogen to be greatly reduced. See here for a brief overview:
http://www.aist.go.jp/NIMC/recent/r00-05-22-1e.htm