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| Naver Labs | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | Naver Labs Corporation |
| Korean name | 네이버랩스 |
| Founded | 2013 (as research center); 2017 (spun off as independent entity) |
| Parent company | Naver Corporation |
| Headquarters | Seongnam, South Korea |
| Industry | Robotics, Artificial intelligence, Autonomous driving |
| Key products | Ambidex, ROOKIE, AROUND series, ARC system |
| Notable facility | 1784 smart building (Seongnam) |
| European office | Naver Labs Europe (Grenoble, France) |
| Website | naverlabs.com |
Naver Labs is the research and development subsidiary of Naver Corporation, South Korea's largest internet company. Established in 2013 as Naver's internal research center and spun off as an independent entity in 2017, Naver Labs conducts advanced research and development in robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, computer vision, and digital twin technology. The company is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea, with a European research office, Naver Labs Europe, based in Grenoble, France.[1][2]
Naver Labs is best known for its integrated approach to robotics and AI, exemplified by its 1784 smart building, the world's first robot-friendly office complex, where over 100 autonomous ROOKIE service robots operate alongside 5,000 human workers. The building serves as a living laboratory for the company's ARC (AI, Robot, Cloud) multi-robot intelligence system, which provides centralized cloud-based coordination for fleets of autonomous robots.[3][4]
The company's robotics portfolio spans the Ambidex cable-driven robot arm platform, the ROOKIE indoor service robot, the AROUND series of autonomous outdoor delivery robots, and the ARC cloud robotics infrastructure. Naver Labs was also the first company in South Korea's domestic IT industry to receive temporary permission to operate self-driving cars on public roads.[2]
Naver Corporation was founded by Lee Hae-jin on June 2, 1999, originating from the "Web Glider" project initiated in 1997 within Samsung SDS. The name "Naver" is a combination of "navigate" and the suffix "-er," referring to someone who navigates information on the internet. Naver quickly became South Korea's dominant internet company, launching the nation's first web portal with its own search engine. The company pioneered "comprehensive search" in August 2000, which displayed blog posts, web pages, images, and community content together on a single results page.[5]
By 2011, Naver held over 70% of the search engine market share in South Korea, earning it the nickname "the Google of South Korea." Naver was registered on the KOSDAQ stock exchange in 2002 as part of NHN Corporation, and later separated as Naver Corporation. The company's platforms include the Naver search engine, the LINE messaging service (dominant in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan), Naver Webtoon (the world's largest digital comics platform), and Naver Cloud.[5]
Naver Labs was established in 2013 as Naver's dedicated research center, initially operating within the parent company's organizational structure. In 2017, Naver Labs was spun off as a separate entity to provide greater autonomy and focus for its research programs in autonomous driving, robotics, artificial intelligence, and geospatial data. That same year, Naver Labs became the first company in South Korea's IT industry to receive temporary permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to operate self-driving cars on public roads.[2]
Naver Labs Europe, based in Grenoble, France, operates as a complementary research center focused on fundamental research in computer vision, machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics.
Construction of the 1784 building began in 2016 and was completed in July 2022. The building's name refers to a year commonly associated with the start of the Industrial Revolution, reflecting Naver's ambition to pioneer a new era of human-robot coexistence. The 28-story office tower in Seongnam, near Seoul, was designed from the ground up to accommodate both human workers and autonomous robots.[3][4]
The 1784 building features several purpose-built systems for robot operation:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Roboport | A dedicated robot-only elevator system to ensure robots can move between floors even when human elevators are crowded |
| 5G network | Building-wide 5G connectivity enabling real-time cloud communication for robot fleets |
| HD mapping | Detailed 3D maps of the entire building interior for robot navigation |
| ARC cloud system | Centralized AI coordination for all robots in the building |
| Robot-friendly design | Hallway widths, door mechanisms, and floor surfaces optimized for autonomous robot navigation |
At launch, approximately 100 ROOKIE service robots were deployed throughout the building, performing tasks such as delivering Starbucks coffee orders, transporting packages between floors, and delivering documents to employees. An employee can place an order at the in-house Starbucks, and a ROOKIE robot will autonomously navigate to the coffee counter, receive the drink in its storage compartment, drive itself to the employee's location, and use facial recognition technology to identify the intended recipient.[3][4]
ARC is Naver Labs' cloud-based multi-robot intelligence system that serves as the centralized "brain" for all robots operating within the 1784 building and other Naver-managed environments. Rather than making each individual robot computationally powerful, Naver Labs designed the robots to transmit data from their cameras and sensors to the ARC cloud, where centralized processing handles navigation, task allocation, and fleet coordination.[3][6]
ARC consists of several interconnected subsystems:
| Component | Function |
|---|---|
| ARC Eye | Visual recognition and spatial understanding; helps robots recognize their surroundings and provides optimal routing |
| ARC Brain | Real-time service infrastructure connection; updates data and algorithms in the cloud for all connected robots |
| ARC Hand | Manipulation planning and control for robotic arms |
The ARC Eye project, led by Vision Group leader Donghwan Lee at Naver Labs Korea, provides real-time environmental recognition and path planning. ARC Brain connects the service infrastructure in real time and continuously updates data and algorithms in the cloud, ensuring that all robots in the fleet benefit from improved routing and behavior as the system learns from accumulated operational data.[3][6]
Ambidex is a dual-arm robot system that uses an innovative cable-driven mechanism for safe, lightweight, and precise human-robot interaction. Developed through industry-university collaboration between Naver Labs and KOREATECH (Korea University of Technology and Education), Ambidex uses cables inside the robot body that act like human tendons, with their state and position monitored by neural network algorithms that calculate the dynamics of cable movement while accounting for their elasticity.[7][8]
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Configuration | Dual 7-DOF arms |
| Weight per arm | 2.6 kg (5.7 lb), lighter than an average adult human arm |
| Max speed | 5 m/s |
| Payload | Up to 3 kg (6.6 lb) |
| Control | Supports high-speed, wireless, real-time control via 5G networks |
| Safety | Inherently safe due to lightweight cable-driven design; can interact naturally with humans |
Ambidex has demonstrated capabilities in task learning through teleoperation using haptic devices that convert human demonstrations into robot learning data. The system has been shown performing tasks such as washing dishes and peeling vegetables. Ambidex supports remote operation from distant locations using the low latency and high throughput of 5G networks.[7][8]
ROOKIE is Naver Labs' autonomous indoor service robot, approximately 3 feet (90 cm) tall, designed for delivery and service tasks within buildings. The ROOKIE 2 represents the latest generation, optimized for smart building deployment.
ROOKIE robots operate as a fleet coordinated by the ARC cloud system rather than as independent autonomous agents. Each robot transmits sensor data to the cloud for centralized processing, reducing the computational requirements of individual units while enabling sophisticated fleet-level coordination and routing optimization. ROOKIE uses facial recognition technology for recipient identification and can navigate autonomously through building corridors, use the Roboport elevator system, and avoid obstacles in crowded environments.[3][4][9]
The AROUND series represents Naver Labs' autonomous outdoor robot platform, designed for delivery and guide applications:
| Model | Function | Key technology |
|---|---|---|
| AROUND (original) | Base autonomous driving platform (2017) | Distributed sensor architecture to reduce per-unit cost |
| AROUND D | Delivery-specialized model | Vision-based autonomous driving with reinforcement learning; no expensive LiDAR required |
| AROUND G | Autonomous guide robot | Human interaction capabilities for wayfinding and guidance |
The AROUND series applies "Brainless Robot Technology," which offloads computationally intensive processing to the cloud, allowing individual robots to be simpler and less expensive while still achieving sophisticated autonomous behavior. AROUND D demonstrated that delivery robots could perform autonomous driving based on vision technology and reinforcement learning even without expensive LiDAR sensors.[10][11]
Naver Labs has conducted research in autonomous driving technology since its early years. In 2017, the company received permission from the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to test self-driving vehicles on public roads, making it the first domestic IT company to achieve this milestone. The autonomous driving research shares technology with the AROUND outdoor robot series, particularly in areas of visual perception, reinforcement learning-based navigation, and HD mapping.[2]
Naver Labs develops digital twin technology under the brand names Alike (3D reconstruction and virtual environment creation) and Hybrid HD Mapping (high-definition indoor and outdoor mapping). These technologies are used to create detailed virtual representations of physical spaces, supporting both robot navigation within the 1784 building and broader applications in indoor augmented reality navigation (Ahead platform) and urban mapping.[2]
Naver Labs organizes its research across five primary domains:
| Domain | Focus areas | Key projects |
|---|---|---|
| Robotics | Service robots, manipulation, fleet coordination | AROUND series, ROOKIE, Ambidex |
| AI | Multi-robot intelligence, task learning, visual AI | ARC system |
| Digital twins | 3D reconstruction, HD mapping | Alike, Hybrid HD Mapping |
| Computer vision / AR | Indoor navigation, augmented reality | Ahead (Indoor AR Navigation) |
| Autonomous driving | Self-driving vehicles, vision-based navigation | Public road testing (since 2017) |
Naver Labs has presented its technologies at CES multiple times. At CES 2019, the company unveiled the Ambidex robot and the AROUND G guide robot to global audiences, demonstrating Korea's capabilities in advanced robotics alongside the ARC cloud robotics platform. These presentations helped establish Naver Labs as a notable player in the international robotics research community.[8][11]
Naver Labs represents an unusual model in the robotics industry: a research subsidiary of an internet company that has made substantial investments in physical robotics, autonomous driving, and smart building infrastructure. While most major internet companies focus their AI research on software applications, Naver has committed to building and deploying physical robots at scale within its own facilities, using the 1784 building as both a functional office and a large-scale robotics testbed.
The company's work on the ARC cloud robotics system and the 1784 building has been cited as an influential example of how cloud-based fleet intelligence can enable practical robot deployment in complex real-world environments, an approach that contrasts with the more common strategy of making individual robots increasingly autonomous.[3]