Just an idle thought of mine

[FungusForge]

This whole idea was the spawn of just thinking about how cool the Megabot versus Kuratas thing a while back and then a stray thought wandered into my head. This is more or less the product of occasionally think about it whenever I was bored for about the last six months.

What if they were tiny?

I figure this'll need more explanation than that, so here we go. We've seen the things robots can do; some can perform amazing stunts, while others struggle to walk. In the end though, we still don't have fully autonomous machines that can maneuver through this world like a human. But what if it were to be controlled by a human? I don't mean with a keyboard or some joysticks, but something more like how the Jaegers in Pacific Rim are controlled, sans neural connection of course. Not quite looking like that, but you should have an idea now: move your arm, and your little robot mimics the movement. But this is only a part of this whole idea.

The other part is, of course, the robot which I've taken to calling a Mikey (short for Micro android or Micro bot). The robot, every time I've imagined it thus far, has only been about 6 inches (~15 cm) tall. Preferably two cameras, a pair of microphones (one for each ear), and possibly even contact sensors so the operator can somewhat feel the environment. More or less a range of motion similar to a human's, so it can properly respond to most of the operator's input. Contrary to most things, these little guys wouldn't actually be built to be as durable as possible. Strong enough to handle what I would consider "normal function" without being nigh-indestructible at the hands of another Mikey. The intent being that they'd be something of a small scale disposable analog to humans. Perfect for their purpose, which would be small robotic deathmatches.

Yeah.

Six months of thinking about tiny robo gladiator fights. Usually when I imagine it though, the Mikeys are engaged in modern-like combat. So usually including guns, correctly scaled vehicles, and an urban-ish environment to fight in. Really though I've brought this here with a simple question in mind:

Would you find something along these lines entertaining enough to watch or participate in?

 

 

P.S. I've not looked into how possible this might be, mostly because I'm not in a position to make it happen if it is. :/

[RainDreamer]

There is some limitations to the sizes of motors until it is too difficult to convey the same motion capacity of the human body. Further more there's also the problem of energy storage for robots that small. But I think there are possibilities here with VR tech and small robots.

Probably more like real steel and arena caged combat than a war game though. 

Edited August 6, 2016 by RainDreamer