Kuratas is launched at the Wonder festival in Tokyo YouTube/重工 水道橋

It is 4 metres (13ft) high, weighs 4.5 tonnes and fires 6,000 ball-bearing pellets a minute, yet this ¥100m (£816,000) monster could be Robomop as well as RoboCop.

The massive robot, called Kuratas, is controlled either by a human pilot in a mid-torso cockpit or by a smartphone connected to a 3G network, and was unveiled at the Wonder festival in Tokyo on Monday.

The diesel-powered machine could, it was claimed, be used as a trundling "ecofriendly" weapons system (top speed 6.2mph) – or customised for more peaceful functions such as firefighting or cleaning, according to designers at Suidobashi Heavy Industry.

Just take care while dusting ...

• This article was amended on 30 July 2012 to correct the price, which was originally given as ¥1m.