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South Korea To Test 1,000 Robots



Get ready for an influx of robotics news, I guess. Hot on the heels of the recent announcement that Microsoft is getting into the robot game, South Korea is announcing that it plans to test out 1,000 wireless remote-controlled domestic robots.

[South Korea’s Ministry of Information] will begin placing 1,000 wheeled, cell-phone controlled automatons — dubbed URCs, or ubiquitous robotic companions — into households and kindergartens this fall as a trial run for new robot technologies. The URCs will do the usual handling of domestic tasks as we might expect (and some we might not have seen coming, like cleaning rooms and reading books to children), as well the usual hanging out, taking care of pets (the real kind), and perform a little light sentry duty. The only thing at all disconcerting about any of this is the fact that unlike normal household droids, these URCs will be operated wirelessly from a central computing center ala I, Robot. Even though central robot behavior processing is what will supposedly get get the cost down to between $1,000 and $2,000 for one of these units, you’ll never know exactly what your URC phoning home to the Ministry of Information and Communication about.

Whoohoo! Good times ahead!

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6 Reader Responses

  1. Kylark Says:
    July 2nd, 2006 at 3:24 pm

    Robots reading to kids = sad.

  2. alistair Says:
    July 2nd, 2006 at 6:00 pm

    my kids have had toys that speak and read stories and they`ve turned out o.k………what`s the diff if a device has a larger cpu or software?

  3. slomo Says:
    July 2nd, 2006 at 9:24 pm

    Woo hoo indeed….

  4. Daniel Says:
    July 3rd, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    I like the idea of having droids, but not the idea of having them all hooked up to a central computer and the possibility/probability of having them spy on you in your home. Independant droids like R2-D2 or C3PO would be cool, not the Trade Federation droid army hooked up to a central processor.

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    July 3rd, 2006 at 4:42 pm

    When you put it like that, it makes me wonder why human beings aren’t hooked into a central processor. Or maybe we are, but we just don’t recognize it. Either way though, what would be the benefit of having a networked life form that either isn’t connected centrally or doesn’t know that it is connected centrally? I ought to make that question into it’s own post and pull in some old ideas about using technology to enhance compassion - cause I think we covered some similar ground a while back.

  6. Centrally Networked Life Forms - Pop Occulture Blog Says:
    July 4th, 2006 at 12:32 am

    […] Thanks to some comments left by Daniel, I’ve been thinking out some other implications of this recent announcement by South Korea that they will be testing 1,000 centrally and remotely controlled robots. Daniel says he would be cool with having autonomous (non-networked) robots like R2D2 or C3P0, but that he wouldn’t be okay with having a robot in his home that might be remotely controlled and may be reporting back on his activities. […]



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