Super Samurai: Robot beats Japanese master swordsman

YASKAWA BUSHIDO PROJECT / Industrial Robot vs Sword Master

Japanese engineers have come up with a robot that can copy the moves of a samurai sword master and then beat his “teacher” in a fight. The samurai machine carries out hard-angled cuts with speed and precision – without breaking sweat.

Awareness, focus, precision, speed—highly desirable qualities not only for human workers but for robots. Yaskawa Electric Corporation recently issued a video that is turning heads as to just what present-day robotics engineers can accomplish.

Among the robot’s most spectacular accomplishments is a party trick: being able to slice a runner bean length ways.

The robot competed against renowned Japanese swordsman Isao Machii, from whom it learned how to fight by motion capturing his moves.

Machii can slice a fried shrimp fired at him at about 130 km per hour, according to The Independent, but he still lost his sword fight against the machine.