I’ve heard building mechas is really difficult but there is no problem in building small humanoid robots (Boston Dynamics). So can’t we just upscale them and make mechas this way?

Question

I’ve heard building mechas is really difficult but there is no problem in building small humanoid robots (Boston Dynamics). So can’t we just upscale them and make mechas this way?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

“Just upscaling” doesn’t work because of the [square-cube law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law) – if you take a working robot design and double its scale you’re moving 8 times more material with motors that are only 4 times stronger. Eventually your materials fail because of the weight on them, or the motors are unable to move the robot.