The Korean government plans to install next year two kinds of network-based robots to greet customers of post offices.

A 1.5-meter tall “male” security robot will guard the post office and shoot a net to capture unexpected intruders during the night time, while his girlfriend will take care of customers, for example, by showing fun video clips to waiting clients through its embedded monitors.

Talking about the ubiquitous robotic companion project (URC), Oh Sang-rok, a manager of the Ministry of Information and Communications says: “If the pair of URC robots pass the feasibility test, they can be applied to banks or other government agencies by handily changing their software.”

In addition, three other home machines will be tested from next year in 100 households.

A 1-meter tall high-end robot would offer health-care programs for owners and provide Internet connection services; a 70 to 80 centimeters tall robot will perform household tasks like cleaning rooms and provide services, such as ordering pizzas or Chinese food via the local information network the robot is connected to; a 50-centimeter tall robot will entertain its owner by, say, reading books while kids are sleeping.

Instead of cramming the three basic functions (sensing, processing and action) of robot into a single machine, the URC team will outsource most sensing and processing abilities by connecting to the broadband network. The Ministry’s strategy is to make robots with price tags that don’t scare off buyers and the answer was to go online.

“A URC robot just provides a platform with the capability of action and the sensing and processing abilities will mostly come through high-speed networks. It can be called software-on-demand without predefined programs,” Oh explained.

Via The Korea Times.