The Japanese robotics company Yaskawa Electric Corporation has released a pretty slick video – already going viral – that depicts a katana-wielding robot matching a world champion sword master stroke for stroke. That’s right: We’re teaching the robots to use swords.

A katana, for the uninitiated, is the traditional curved Japanese sword used by samurai, dating all the way back to the 12th century. Among the planet’s most accomplished masters of the katana is Isao Machii, five-time world record holder and the sort of steely-eyed fellow who likes to cut BB pellets in half, mid-flight.

In the video, technicians outfit Machii with a motion capture suit and record his movements doing various superhuman things with a sword. That data is then fed into the company’s Motoman-MH24 robot, a precision industrial and medical bot known for its exceptional motor control – literally.

In a rather surreal showdown, the robot matches the swordmaster stroke for stroke, cutting into flowers, fruit and tatami mats. The two then square off in the competition involving 1,000 cuts in sequence, after which Machii is visibly fatigued. The robot looks like it could go another thousand, easy.

This is one of the Greatest moders Samurai facing The World’s Most Advanced Robot! in a katana skills challenge at a high level after watching this i become afraid of robots and machines they will kill us someday.

Source: Mission Galactic Freedom