The South Korean government is working on a set of guiding principles to outline how people and robots should interact.

A panel is working on the commandments Robots Ethics Charter and is due to report back later this year. The five member team includes a science fiction writer and could well mirror Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics. Asimov's laws have been criticised for not allowing police or soldier robots.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said: "The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to develop strong intelligence in the near future."

The South Korean government is convinced robots have a role well beyond bomb disposal and Fiat factories. They are already in use in post offices, and the government predicts that every South Korean home will have a networked robot by 2020.

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