South Korea’s heavily fortified northern border has gained a set of machine gun-toting robotic sentries.
Automated gun turrets are nothing new to gamers, as they pop up pretty much everywhere. To the soldiers guarding the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea, however, they’re a new and very, very real addition.
The robots are equipped with heat and motion sensors, not to mention a machine gun and a 40mm grenade launcher. Should the sentries detect a possible threat, they alert a command center and if the target is not permitted to approach, then the robot’s operator can order them to open fire.
Currently the sentries are confined to just a single guard station near the middle of the DMZ as a test of their capabilities, but military sources say that if the tests are successful, they will be installed all along the 160 mile border.
Ordinarily this is where I’d joke about the upcoming robot revolution, but there’s something oddly unnerving about a robot that watches you approach and then waits for permission to shoot you. Of course, if you’re ever in position to be seen by the robots, you’re in one of the most dangerous places on the planet anyway, and are probably already in a world of trouble whether they shoot you or not.
Source: Telegraph
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