The J-deite Quarter
© Screen Capture
If you are a Transformer fan who dreams of someday owning your own transforming robot, Project J-deite will soon make your dream a reality.

The project, which is a collaborative effort between Japan's Brave Robotics, Asratec and Takara Tommy, is the brain child of Kenji Ishida, founder of Brave Robotics.

Ishida's passion for robotics began at the age of 14 and by the time he was 21, he had built his first bi-pedal walking robot. Now, he and his team have developed the J-deite Quarter, a humanoid bi-pedal robot made out of 3D-printed parts.

Introduced last week at the Digital Content Expo in Tokyo, attendees and the media got a glimpse of what J-deite Quarter can do.

The transforming robot stands 1.3 meters (4.3 feet) tall and can walk at a rate of 1 kilometer per hour (0.62 mph). Geek.com reports it takes J-deite Quarter approximately 30 seconds to transform from a walking robot to car mode. Once in car mode, it can travel up to ten kilometers per hour (6.2 mph).

According to Mashable, the current J-deite model is called Quarter because it is one quarter the size of a standard automobile, which measures around 5 meters (16ft) in length. It weights 35 kilograms (77lbs) and can run up to one hour on a single 3kW battery charge.


Powered by 'V-Sido OS', software designed by Wataru Yoshizaki which allows anyone to control the humanoid robot, the J-deite Quarter has an arrayed of blue car panel parts, exactly like the ones seen on the Transformer toys.

According to the Brave Robotics website. the company plans to produce the J-deite Half, which will be 2.5 meters long by 2016. Ishida explains his ultimate goal, saying:
"The goal of Project J-deite is building of a giant transformable robot [that is] 5m long. It is the same size as a car - an object of the same size transforms, walks, and runs. A world mankind has never seen is waiting. The goal of this project is only a halfway point of [my] intention because 'incorporation' is yet waiting."
Although the J-deite Quarter is merely a prototype and will not be released to the public, Transformer fans are undoubtedly counting down the days when the full size J-deite is released, which is currently scheduled for some time in 2020.