Kapuku Point, What you say is great in theory.  However, government has a poor investment record.  Since politics will unavoidably be involved, "investments" will likely go to friends or those who have made large political contributions.  What would result is something like the rail project, where twice as much as the original cost has now been "invested," and that amount keeps rising.  It's more workable to let the private sector develop robots, then to heavily tax the robot owners.