As it seeks to become a leader in robotic technology, South Korea is about to put a new type of droid through its paces: a robot prison guard.
Under a project sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, trials of the robots will be held for a month at a jail in the city of Pohang, southeast of Seoul, from March.
The robots are designed to patrol the corridors of corrective institutions, monitoring conditions inside the cells. If they detect sudden or unusual activity such as violent behavior they alert human guards.
South Korea is quickly becoming a leader in robotics. The country has already deployed sentry bots with deadly weapons along its border with North Korea, a wobbly robot dog and robot teachers.