By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
If movies show a glimpse of what is in store for the future, robots are likely to adopt sophisticated connectivity as their primary feature rather than artificial intelligence, in defiance of what previously had been imagined.
Earlier science fiction films typically conjured up stand-alone machines featuring highly-advanced artificial intelligence, such as R2-D2 and C3PO in "Star Wars," Sonny in "I, Robot" and the cybernetic assassins in "Terminator."
But such autonomous robots are not seen at all in the recent "Avatar" though it is set between May and August of 2154, much later than "I, Robot," and "Terminator."
In "Surrogates," a film set in 2017, people can purchase robotic versions of themselves that are very young and good-looking, in order to make the machines assume their day-to-day life duties.
Neither the avatars nor the surrogates are equipped with anything like artificial intelligence. In other words, they cannot think or move on their own but come to life whenever connected to the brains of their owners.
"The movies show that artificial intelligence is not the only power of next-generation robots. Enhanced ability to be connected to a human being is seemingly regarded as a viable alternative as research on artificial intelligence is developing slower than initially hyped," said a Seoul researcher who asked not to be named.
"You can say that these films are merely science fiction. But to some extent, they reflect what has been going on in the robotic research industry of late. Private firms and military projects are increasingly stressing connectivity rather than artificial intelligence," he said.
Countries are cancelling or reducing the size of projects aimed at developing totally autonomous robots on the ground or in the sky.
Instead of attempting to build such self-sufficient machines, they are channeling their efforts into researching the possibility of unmanned vehicles to be controlled by humans from distant locations.
In Korea, the state-run Agency for Defense Development is researching such endeavors as network technology for unmanned ground vehicles - one of its latest tasks.
In addition, the country's robotics scientists, at a gathering last month, expected that a prototype for an avatar robot will surface in the not-so-distant future.
"Domestic robot makers are currently working on prototypes for avatar robots and the consensus is that the first ones will emerge around 2013," said an official at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
"The robots will not be exactly like the advanced humanoid fighters in the movie. However, they will feature the same idea - to represent their owners - and the technology will improve down the road," he said.