South Korea to use four-legged patrol robots to guard public spaces
Four-legged robots will patrol riverside trails and parks in Cheonan, a city south of Seoul, after regulators approved South Korea's first trial of legged robots on pedestrian paths, the city government said Monday, AJU Press reports.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources' regulatory sandbox committee granted the trial a special exemption on Oct. 13, on condition that it meets additional requirements.
The decision lets the robots patrol Cheoncheon Stream, Cheonhoji Lake and Cheonan Three-way Intersection Park.
The robots, built by consortium member Maum.AI, use physical AI to sense their surroundings and move through real spaces. When floods or crimes break out, they can guide people to safety and send live footage to a control center so responders can act early.
Legs let the machines climb stairs and slopes that rail-mounted patrol robots cannot reach, covering blind spots that closed-circuit cameras miss, the city said.
Wheeled delivery robots have been allowed on South Korean sidewalks since November 2023 once they pass a government safety certification. The ministry called the Cheonan trial the first to let a four-legged robot patrol pedestrian roads.
"We will make Cheonan a testbed where physical AI and other AI technologies are tested and verified in real urban spaces," said Cheonan Mayor Jang Ki-soo.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that robot dogs had been deployed in Astana to help police spot wanted suspects.