The miniature weapons called “armed attack” robots designed as antiterror machines and are the latest line-up of tech China is reportedly integrating into its military force.
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The push has support at the highest levels of government.
Three robots specializing in reconnaissance, small explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and armed attack have debuted at the just-concluded 2015 World Robot Conference in Beijing amid escalating global terror threats.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang both sent congratulatory letters to the opening of the Conference on 23 November, showing the country has attached great importance to the robotics industry.
The BBC reported China already is the world’s largest market for industrial robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
Wang Tianran, an academician at the China Academy of Engineering, said that sales of service robots that can conduct such tasks as cooking, monitoring blood pressure and helping senior citizens may increase due to the aging population and the increasing income of Chinese families.
Horizon Robotics head Yu Kai, on the other hand, estimated a greater role for the automated helpers in the future, predicting: “Each person might have 10 robots”.
A Taichi player plays Taichi with a robot at the World Robot Conference in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 24, 2015.
In Chinese cities, businesses try to attract customers with robot waiters, cooks, and concierges. In the countryside, rural artisans cobble together mechanical men from scrapyard junk.
The conference also hosted discussions on the opportunities – and perils – of artificial intelligence.
But the transition to a real robot economy could be tricky, with the country’s technology still lagging far behind neighbours South Korea and Japan. But in the future, of course we are gonna create some flawless AI system by using this robot.
And for China to lead the robot revolution, it will have to do more than design machines able to beat children at lawn sports – it will also have to overcome what many experts see as a penchant for mechanistic copying.
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There are more than 1,000 robot-related firms across China, but quality – not quantity – is the robot sector’s biggest challenge, according to Qu Daokui, chairman of Siasun Robot and Automation, a Shenyang-based industrial robot producer.
