APPLICATIONS: The robots are capable of disaster and firefighting response, autonomous navigation, swarm operations as well as underground tunnel inspections, the ministry said By Lin Ching-hua / Staff reporter The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and industry partners to create a homegrown program to develop four-legged robots to tap into the US$4 billion global robot dog market. The initiative aims to leverage Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, semiconductors and precision machinery to build indigenous technologies and a non-China supply chain, the ministry said.Technology is evolving from robotic arms to wheeled, quadruped and humanoid robots with autonomous mobility capabilities, it said. A do