Robotic Nation Evidence

Meanwhile the entire world hopes to have robots that can compete in soccer at a world class level against humans in 2050. But maybe Korea can outpace the rest of the world's researchers.
 

Korea has made incredible strides recently in the fields of consumer electronics, automobiles, cloning and robotics and even represent the leading edge in filmed entertainment. I'm very impressed by their government's commitment to excellence in industry. I believe they will eclipse Japan's lead shortly, as they have planned.
 

Why doesn't the U.S. government and U.S. industry make a commitment like this?
 

The United States is making a huge push in robotics. However, due to cultural hang-ups not found in the far-east, Americans are eshewing humanoid robots in favor of vehicular robots. NASA, the DoD and otehrs are leading the world in terms of vehicular robotics. Is it necessary or even possible for one country to be the best at everything? Let us pick a niche and then trade our driverless cars, for the untiring hordes of Asian robot-workers. Win-Win.
 

That's an intersting plan: Korea already IS in the top three of robotics: Japan, USA, Korea. Under-promise, over-deliver? Or another case of a bureaucrat telling people what sounds good?
 

The 'leader' in robotics needn't be national, especially with the march of globalization.

Also, governments aren't very good at picking winners. More often than not, the initial push caused a healthy spike in activity, followed by continued growth or not based on the technology itself. Think how poorly synthfuels have performed, compared to, say, the Internet.

My point is that individual companies will shine or fail. Just because a company in America doesn't get government funding, doesn't mean it won't be the best in the world in its niche, e.g. iRobot's cleaning bots.

Either way, In the short term (10 years), vehicular robotics will meet more business needs, and thus will be adopted faster than consumer bots. Think of automatic storage for an Amazon warehouse. It is easier and more profitable.