While Japan has been making cute little sumo-bots,
Korea has been developing robot controlled tanks.
Come on Japan, get your act together! Where are the mechanized engines of death you’ve been promising me since childhood?
Oh, and DARPA is of course trying to automate the monster truck rally, or possibly NASCAR.
Not to be contrary, but thats not a tank. The vehicles in the picture are almost certainly a Korean 155mm Self-propelled howitzer and its ammunition resupply vehicle. The automation I believe lies in how the gun is reloaded by the resupply vehicle and it’s not really a robot in the popular sense (think terminator).
Yeah, you are correct. According to the article, we’re looking at a 155mm K9 self propelled cannon and a K10 Thunder Ａｍｍｕｎｉｔｉｏｎ Ｒｅｓｕｐｐｌｙ Ｖｅｈｉｃｌｅ. The Thunder is the new development, which took Samsung and the Korean equivalent of DARPA 35 months to develop, starting in August 2002, at a cost of 12.7 billion.