South Korea To Develop Army and Police Robots

JonathanGCohen writes "South Korea is planning on developing an advanced line of robots for military and police use by the 2010 decade. A $34 million USD infusion of cash will spur development and result in robotic applications like security watchmen and eight-legged autonomous combat vehicles. "

Comments

Smart Robots?

[mfh]

Smart robots need three basic functions of sensing, processing and action. Thus far, robotics researchers have tried to cram the three into a single dummy, causing expenses to soar. [...] Instead, the planned robots will be receiving most sensing and processing capabilities via a Web connection. Only the ability of movement will be located in the robot.

Nothing could possibly go wrong, there. Clones will have a better chance of getting the job done than web vulnerable policing units carrying live ammo.

Re:Smart Robots?

[msloan]

Yeah, I always thought it was smarter to have humans control the robots, rather than cooking up some AI. Sure, AI is cool, but for this application it is really unecessary. Plus this would give all of this generation's video game addicts a decent job.

Re:Smart Robots?

[hackstraw]

Being that Americans don't hardly even get killed anymore when they wage their war every 10 years because of our superior technology, I see the next incarnation of war to be a big battlebot war or something.

I would say that even that is progress. Hell, even then maybe wars won't cost us so much. People pay to go to arenas like in the days of gladiators. (I'm not sure if they paid or it was free.) But still, picture a football sized arena, and the lights go down and its US vs N. Korea. Of course WMDs would not be allowed. You have to build the suspense and make the battle last.

Yes, this is definitely progress.

That bothers me.

[WindBourne]

In the USA, the military is not allowed to interfere with civilian matters (that was until recently). One of the advantages of this, is that it is so enforced in the military, that most would rebel against any attempted military coup or an attempt to convert America to a dictatorship. But a robot will not likely have a sense of ethics. They would gladly do exactly what the current leader says, be it Clinton (for you republicans) or GWB (for the rest of us).

Marriage?

[saskboy]

What happens though when the Robot Police want to marry the Robot Teachers:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/ 04/0338238&tid=216&tid=146 ?

Will Robosexual unions be allowed under South Korean law?

And just wait until the messy Robodivorces when Robot Police Lady rolls off with Robot Soldier:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/ 25/0218254&tid=216&tid=219

And they haven't even invented Robot Lawyers yet! The world will come tumbling down.

better the robots than people

[DeveloperAdvantage]

The world would be a much better place if we could ensure all wars are fought with only robots on BOTH sides. Think of all the human lives which would be saved.

Re:better the robots than people

[lspd]

In a completely robotic war the only casualties will be civilians.

Jump a head to the end goal

[Belseth]

Already the leaders stay home and play armchair warfare. Next step is the soldiers stay home and play war like a video game. It's been around for years folks, it's called Robot Wars. I say the leaders of each country build the best fighting robot then they can duke it out and nobody gets hurt and we save billions of dollars. Got a border dispute? Whoever can build the best fighting machine wins? It levels the playing field, saves time and money and by far the most important it saves lives. Don't like a level playing field? Try talking out your problems like civilized people do.

Re:Jump a head to the end goal

[Draveed]

Why bother building a fighting machine? If you're just going to turn warfare into a little game, just have some humans play an existing game to solve your problem. Have the 2 nations each pick a soldier for a boxing match or even just a game of poker. It's all the same. You're just trying to take the killing and destruction out of warfare.

The problem is that your system relies on trust. How can I trust that my enemy is only going to confine this combat to the "fighting machine arena" or poker table, or whatever? You can't. Your enemy may just backstab you, and while you're only ready for your sanitized combat, they lunch a real attack on your cities. So you need to prepare for that and spend billions on a conventional army anyway.

Re:Jump a head to the end goal

[supabeast!]

What you're missing here is that the robots built for war won't be built to kill other machines - they'll be built to penetrate deep beyond enemy defense and inflict the maximum possible casualties appropriate for the situation, all without putting a human pilot in danger.

Re:Jump a head to the end goal

[Sigg3.net]

Try talking out your problems like civilized people do.

I'm reading through the World History from 4000 B.C to the 20th century. From what I've read, it seems to me that all civilized people do is kill each other, or go to extreme lengths in discovering new ways of killing each other.

There's a difference between 'civilized' and 'intelligent'. But I wholeheartedly embrace your opinion.

Asimov's Laws are fun for logic games but c'mon...

[Anonymous Coward]

We really need to let them go.

If I wander into an automotive plant and start nosing around there is an excellent chance that I will be seriously injured/killed by a robot.

Besides, can we really see humans (you know, the animal that still spends vast resources inventing NEW ways to kill) applying this to real-life robots?

Leave the Three Laws to the world of fiction where they belong.

just one step along the way

[Surt]

The rich need the poor to do only a few jobs: mass manufacture, police and emergency services, civil services. When they've got robots that eliminate the need for those at the bottom, I doubt they'll keep them around. If you are middle class or lower, you should think carefully about whether you're helping to build technology that will allow the upper class to do away with you.

The Cops, The Criminals & The Civil Fruitcakes

[__aaclcg7560]

If the Robo-Cops hits the streets, the invention of small EMP grenades won't be too far behind. As an American citizen, do I have the constitutional right to bear EMP grenades? Or would EMP grenades fall into the same classification as regular explosive grenades?

Re:Isaac Asimov would not have liked this!

[Cheapy]

Since when do people in the real world have to abide by some rules created by a dead author for use in his science FICTION books?

Re:Why is it the Koreans?

[killjoe]

We (the US) make all kinds of war robots. Things like cruise missilies and missile launching drones are robots too you know.