South Korean "gun-toting sentries" to protect, serve

South Korea has unveiled the latest piece of evidence that the future is finally upon us: it's supplementing its soldiers manning the border with North Korea with "gun-toting sentries" that can detect baddies and kill them. Or as Lee Jae-Hoon, deputy minister of commerce, industry and energy told the Agence France Press: "The Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot has surveillance, tracking, firing, and voice recognition systems built into a single unit." The South Korean government is expected to buy 1,000 of these robots at the cost of $200,000 apiece and will deploy them along its northern border, coastal regions and military airfileds. However, it's unclear what would happen if Kim Jong Il were to send in a legion of pilfered remote-controlled domestic robots as a countermeasure -- that is, if these robotic sentries would be willing to fire on their own kind.

Update: Eagle-eyed reader (and likely Korean speaker) Jihan J. happened upon a Korean site with pics and an actual video of this bot in action. Go on and check it out -- that is, if you like watching robots shoot automatic weapons wildly in every direction.

[Kyle @ Sep 28th 2006 5:09PM]

Our task as the human race isn't to stop judgement day, but to survive it.

[Simon @ Sep 28th 2006 5:17PM]

Both this post and the comments made me burst out laughing, and I'm not entirely sure why.

Thankyou Engadget, for bringing that little ray of sunshine into my day

[Cade @ Sep 28th 2006 5:17PM]

As long as they don't come near America, I'm ok with them.

[Luke @ Sep 28th 2006 5:22PM]

Haha... freaking awesome.

[Pedro @ Sep 28th 2006 5:31PM]

> that is, if these robotic sentries would be willing to fire on their own kind.

Don't worry, they'll all be friends again in silicon heaven.

[Kenno @ Sep 28th 2006 5:51PM]

Oh what fun to be a North Korean boarder guard. Instead of long lonely nights walking back and forth, now you can blast away at $200,000 robots, set up trip lines and watch them writhe helplessly on their backs, yell, youho robot man -- missed me, your mother was an IBM, and of course spray them with water an watch them seize up. All this fun and never have to hurt anyone. Too much.

[Seung-Hwan @ Sep 28th 2006 5:52PM]

Maybe they won't need mandatory service for every male anymore.

[Mac @ Sep 28th 2006 5:54PM]

The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line September 28th, 2006. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, September 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

[Marcus Owens @ Sep 28th 2006 5:56PM]

I say this:

NK should send in Ninjas
US should send in Pirates

Then we could answer once and for all who would win in a fight: pirates, cyborgs, or ninjas.

[aeo @ Sep 28th 2006 6:07PM]

That should take care of those pesky refugees trying to escape from the North. Also, so much for the lone spy making a break for the southern border to escape Kim Jong II's personal guard in his stolen Hyundai James Bond style. "aaaalllmost there... just a few more yards.... YAY I MADE IT! *Brraaaaap!*" Cleanup on aisle 11.

[Tai Fuller @ Sep 28th 2006 6:48PM]

no way! 10 comments and it wasn't said! ok, here it goes:

"I for one, welcome our gun wielding voice recognizing overpriced overlords"


Oh, and just for good measure I�ll turn it into an apple fanboy post (I�m not a apple fanboy though i do own one) here goes: �If it runs windows it will have major security issues�


Now I�ve said everything that�s going to be said about this post�.let�s move on to the next one shall we?

[Dario @ Sep 28th 2006 6:56PM]

thats it.. the age of humans is comming to an end, and the age of robots shall rise.... im going underground now, saves me the trouble of doing it later

[Billy @ Sep 28th 2006 7:03PM]

What the hell? That's messed up. I do not believe that AI is advanced enough yet to let robots make the decision to shoot someone. Will it ever be?

[hams @ Sep 28th 2006 7:06PM]

"The Intelligent Surveillance and Guard Robot has surveillance, tracking, firing, and voice recognition systems built into a single unit."

As long as it recognizes the phrase "don't shoot", i'm good.

[telepheedian @ Sep 28th 2006 7:07PM]

We need these for the US Border Guard.

[D.Lopez @ Sep 28th 2006 7:30PM]

its funny to read some people's comments, keeps me intertained!! thanks engadget

[Russ @ Sep 28th 2006 7:50PM]

voice recognition - didn't robocop warn us about this:

ED-209: Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.
Dick Jones: I think you'd better do as he says, Mr. Kinney.

[Steve Packard @ Sep 28th 2006 7:52PM]

I'm not sure if I'd like this or not. it depends on whether the programs is based on logic like: If someone scales this well-labled, barbed wire fence, shoot them.


Or if it's more like: If someone is acting suspicious, read their body language and see if they look nervous or out of place. If so, question them, and if their answer does not seem to fit the sitation, then demand ID and if they do not present the proper id, question them futher. If you do not like the answers or they seem evasive: Shoot them.

[Bard @ Sep 28th 2006 7:58PM]

Not to be a rain on some good humor here, but....

Isn't there a UN mandate on armed robotics on the battlefield if I remember right? Also, perhaps isn't NOT such a far fetched idea to start talking "3 laws" protocols when devices like this are hitting the market.

Just a thought

[HughJass @ Sep 28th 2006 8:11PM]

I gotta get one of those for my backyard... pesky squirrels!

[Snake @ Sep 28th 2006 10:05PM]

I dont know about you guys but i figure the best thing to do is for all of us to become robots, that way everybody wins.

[Chris Gaines @ Sep 28th 2006 10:16PM]

here is the video on you tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRKksfKDIto

crazy

[rolfo87 @ Sep 28th 2006 10:27PM]

whats next>>>frikcin robot fights in space! hells yea

[Phour ZwanZig @ Sep 28th 2006 10:38PM]

Wow.. I just looked at the pic.. didnt check out the video..

but...

Is that Samsungs name I see on there..

[[e-mail] @ Sep 28th 2006 11:08PM]

Johnny Five is Alive!

[Wesley Hester @ Sep 29th 2006 1:20AM]

Aliens Director Cut come to life.

[Bob @ Sep 29th 2006 1:29AM]

I've crossed the DMZ line into North Korea and seen the tension between North and South Korea up close. It is unbelievable... and the history of violence at the DMZ is as gory as imaginable. Soldiers cut up with the same axes they used to cut down a few trees, etc.

The jokes here about Judgment Day are not far off. I do not feel comfortable having a robot make a decision to shoot and kill in one of the most volatile areas in the world. This really could start the apocalypse. Just my 2 cents, but I would rather have humans being stupid and staring each other down than robots giving us or them a reason to "push the button."

[z0idberg @ Sep 29th 2006 4:06AM]

Whats the difference between:
a) robot sentry with a machine gun
b) a few dozen landmines hidden over the same stretch of ground?

At least the robot can be switched off (presumably).

Estimates of the number of landmines in the DMZ - somewhere between tens of thousands and millions:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9710/10/land.mines/

[Simon @ Sep 29th 2006 4:10AM]

Read and look, that's a sentry, not a robot. So them taking over the world is still a few "steps" away.

Anyway, like that us face recognition system, this will not change anything. Humans can be brainwashed into acting just like a "extreme-predjudice" sentry. They actually already are. US and Israeli soldiers are killing civillians daily because the look or act "strange". Or just because they can.
And as Bob said, the area these will be used in already is as violent as it gets.

This will not make the world a better or worse place. It's just on bully showing of his new toys to tell the other bullies to keep away.

[stayontheroofs @ Sep 29th 2006 5:19AM]

This is the most pointless thing ever.
ANYONE who's ever played a sci-fi first person shooter will know how to stay out of range or improbably blow them up.

[rty @ Sep 29th 2006 6:06AM]

Long live Kim Jong Il and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea for all the idiots out there). May they smite their South Korean ememies and their stupid robot guns. Long live Communism!

[Tim @ Sep 29th 2006 1:16PM]

Is Engadget going to raffle one of these off?

[setsix @ Sep 29th 2006 2:47PM]

This is great, MGS turns real.

[James Bond @ Sep 29th 2006 3:25PM]

Who is the sick frag who invented this crap??? This is disturbing on so many levels.

[E71 @ Sep 29th 2006 5:12PM]

Anyone gonna mention anything about the brand logo on it? It's got the Samsung logo on it! Woah.

[holycow001 @ Sep 29th 2006 6:24PM]

put them on the US, Mexico border

[TObject @ Sep 30th 2006 4:50AM]

US Defence departmen should buy those to deploy on US-Mexico border
Will be much cheaper instead of building the wall!

[roparom @ Sep 30th 2006 10:55PM]

let's all hope it doesnt get struck by lightning and start calling itself "johnny 5"
i bet it cant make cocktails though

[Milquetoast @ Oct 14th 2006 7:32PM]

What a great tourist attraction! I'm gonna have to go up to the DMZ and see this for myself!

[syroch @ Dec 11th 2006 7:07PM]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but these things don't really move, as of yet. And the US *is* buying robots (not this model), though the models the Chicago police are buying are equipped with water cannons...and have the capability to be armed with combat shotguns! Yay! >.>

Seriously, though, these things aren't completely autonomous. They're remote controlled by a human operator, which means that people will still be killing people, not robots killing people.

This is actually a really good article about it...

http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/the_robot_that.html

[DoomTrooper @ Jan 9th 2007 8:00PM]

Johnny 5 is now packing major heat!

[DoomTrooper @ Jan 9th 2007 10:03PM]

Damn just remembered it is time to order that Robot Holocaust Survival guide. I will survive to fight the evil Robot Overlords!