# Naver Labs

> Source: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/naver_labs
> Updated: 2026-06-27
> Categories: Humanoid Robots, Robotics Companies
> From AI Wiki (https://aiwiki.ai), a free encyclopedia of artificial intelligence. Quote with attribution.

| 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](/wiki/naver_corporation) |
| **Headquarters** | Seongnam, South Korea |
| **Industry** | [Robotics](/wiki/robotics), [Artificial intelligence](/wiki/artificial_intelligence), Autonomous driving |
| **Key products** | [Ambidex](/wiki/naver_labs_ambidex), ROOKIE, AROUND series, ARC system |
| **Notable facility** | 1784 smart building (Seongnam) |
| **European office** | Naver Labs Europe (Grenoble, France) |
| **Website** | [naverlabs.com](https://www.naverlabs.com/en/) |

**Naver Labs** is the research and development subsidiary of [Naver Corporation](/wiki/naver_corporation), South Korea's largest internet company, established in 2017 to develop future technologies in robotics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and augmented reality.[1][2] The company is best known for the 1784 building in Seongnam, the world's first robot-friendly office complex, where roughly 100 autonomous ROOKIE service robots are coordinated by its cloud-based ARC (AI, Robot, Cloud) system.[3][4] Naver Labs is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea, and operates a separate fundamental-research center, Naver Labs Europe, in Grenoble, France.[1][2]

Naver Labs traces its origins to a research center created inside Naver in 2013 and was spun off as an independent entity in 2017 to give its programs in autonomous driving, robotics, AI, and geospatial data greater focus.[2] Its stated mission is to extend Naver, a company that has been mostly online and mobile, into the physical world by mastering the technologies of robotics, spatial mapping, and autonomous machines.[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 about 100 autonomous ROOKIE service robots operate alongside roughly 5,000 human workers in a building designed for that capacity.[3][4] 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] "At 1784, we'll be experiencing and testing the future technologies we're developing before presenting them to the world," said SangChul Kang, head of Naver Labs' Project and Platform Group.[3]

The company's robotics portfolio spans the [Ambidex](/wiki/naver_labs_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]

## What is Naver Labs?

Naver Labs is the R&D subsidiary that Naver Corporation uses to pursue physical-world technologies, organized around five research domains: robotics, AI, digital twins, computer vision and augmented reality, and autonomous driving.[2] Unlike most major internet companies, whose AI work is concentrated in software, Naver has invested heavily through Naver Labs in building and deploying physical robots at scale inside its own facilities, with the 1784 building functioning as both a working office and a large-scale robotics testbed.[3]

A key architectural choice distinguishes Naver Labs' robots: rather than making each unit individually powerful, the company offloads heavy computation to the cloud. It calls this "Brainless Robot Technology," which lets individual robots be simpler and cheaper while the ARC system in the cloud handles perception, navigation, and fleet coordination.[10][11]

### Naver Corporation background

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]

## When was Naver Labs founded?

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](/wiki/computer_vision), machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics.[2]

## What is the 1784 building?

The 1784 building is Naver's headquarters tower in the Bundang district of Seongnam, near Seoul, and is described as the world's first robot-friendly building.[3][4] Construction began in 2016 and the building opened in June 2022. It rises 36 floors and was designed for approximately 5,000 employees working alongside about 100 autonomous robots.[3][4] The name 1784 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.[3]

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 local 5G connectivity enabling real-time cloud communication for robot fleets with little to no lag |
| **HD mapping** | Detailed 3D maps (a digital twin) 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, robots were deployed in the dozens with the fleet expected to reach about 100 ROOKIE units, performing tasks such as delivering Starbucks coffee orders, transporting packages between floors, and delivering documents to employees.[3][4] 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] Sangok Seok, CEO of Naver Labs, framed the need for centralized control directly: "In such a large building, we do believe in the need for a central control system for harmonious and smart control for 100 robots to move, we have to manage that properly."[3]

## What does Naver Labs work on?

Naver Labs organizes its research across five primary domains: robotics, AI, digital twins, computer vision and augmented reality, and autonomous driving.[2] The sections below describe its main products and platforms.

### What is the ARC system (AI, Robot, Cloud)?

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.[3][6] It runs on Naver Cloud infrastructure and a local 5G network, and it maintains a [digital twin](/wiki/digital_twin) of the building to pinpoint each robot's location in real time.[6] 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]

### What is Ambidex?

[Ambidex](/wiki/naver_labs_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) per arm |
| **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 |

The cable-driven design places the heavy actuators in the shoulder and body, mimicking how human muscles drive lightweight limbs, which keeps each arm light and fast while preserving precise, safe force control.[7][12] Ambidex has demonstrated capabilities in task learning through teleoperation using haptic devices that convert human demonstrations into robot learning data, and it 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][12]

### What is the ROOKIE service robot?

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.[9]

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] In 2024, Naver Labs partnered with hardware supplier ADLINK to advance the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) technology behind the ROOKIE platform.[13]

### What is the AROUND series?

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](/wiki/reinforcement_learning) even without expensive [LiDAR](/wiki/lidar) sensors.[10][11]

### What does Naver Labs do in autonomous driving?

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](/wiki/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]

### What is Naver Labs' digital twin and spatial computing work?

Naver Labs develops [digital twin](/wiki/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] In November 2023, Naver Labs won a contract to build a digital twin platform for Saudi Arabia, reported as the first export of such technology by a South Korean IT company to the Middle East.[2]

## How is Naver Labs different from Naver Cloud and HyperCLOVA X?

Naver Labs is distinct from Naver Cloud, the Naver subsidiary responsible for the company's large language models. The HyperCLOVA family of models, including the flagship [HyperCLOVA X](/wiki/naver_ai), is developed by Naver Cloud rather than Naver Labs.[14][15] Naver Cloud unveiled HyperCLOVA X on August 24, 2023, positioning it as a Korean-centric generative AI model; HyperCLOVA X has been reported with more than 204 billion parameters, larger than [GPT-3](/wiki/gpt_3)'s 175 billion, and it powers consumer services such as the CLOVA X chatbot and the Cue search engine.[14][15][16] Naver Labs, by contrast, concentrates on physical-world AI: robotics, autonomous driving, spatial mapping, and the ARC robot-coordination system described above.[2] For an overview of Naver's broader AI portfolio, see [Naver AI](/wiki/naver_ai).

## Research areas

Naver Labs organizes its research across five primary domains:

| Domain | Focus areas | Key projects |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Robotics** | Service robots, manipulation, fleet coordination | AROUND series, ROOKIE, [Ambidex](/wiki/naver_labs_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) |

## CES participation

Naver Labs has presented its technologies at [CES](/wiki/consumer_electronics_show) 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]

## Significance

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]

## See also

- [Ambidex](/wiki/naver_labs_ambidex)
- [Naver Corporation](/wiki/naver_corporation)
- [Naver AI](/wiki/naver_ai)
- [Humanoid robots](/wiki/humanoid_robots)
- [Autonomous driving](/wiki/autonomous_driving)
- [Digital twin](/wiki/digital_twin)

## References

1. [Naver Labs official website](https://www.naverlabs.com/en/)
2. [Korean internet giant Naver explores robotics, AI and autonomous driving - TechCrunch (September 2023)](https://techcrunch.com/2023/09/01/korean-internet-giant-naver-explores-robotics-ai-and-autonomous-driving/)
3. ["Korean Google" opens the world's first robot-friendly building - Freethink](https://www.freethink.com/robots-ai/1784-naver-labs)
4. [This futuristic office was designed for 5,000 people and 100 robot coworkers - Fast Company](https://www.fastcompany.com/90754724/this-futuristic-office-was-designed-for-5000-people-and-100-robot-coworkers)
5. [Naver Corporation - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naver_Corporation)
6. [Naver to enter smart building market with 5G, AI robots - KED Global](https://www.kedglobal.com/artificial-intelligence/newsView/ked202206080019)
7. [AMBIDEX, robot arm with innovative cable-driven mechanisms - Naver Labs](https://www.naverlabs.com/en/storyDetail/12)
8. [NAVER Unveils Advanced Robotics, Autonomous Driving and Mobility Technologies at CES 2019 - BusinessWire](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190108005321/en/NAVER-Unveils-Advanced-Robotics-Autonomous-Driving-and-Mobility-Technologies-to-Global-Market-at-CES-2019)
9. [Rookie 2: Redefining Service Robots for Smart Buildings - Naver Labs](https://www.naverlabs.com/en/storyDetail/343)
10. [Unveiling the AMBIDEX Task Learning Project and Delivery Robot AROUND D - Naver Labs](https://www.naverlabs.com/en/storyDetail/184)
11. [Naver Labs - NamuWiki](https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EB%84%A4%EC%9D%B4%EB%B2%84%EB%9E%A9%EC%8A%A4)
12. [AMBIDEX cable-driven robot learns to wash dishes, peel vegetables - Inceptive Mind](https://www.inceptivemind.com/ambidex-cable-driven-robot-learns-wash-dishes-peel-vegetables/16439/)
13. [ADLINK and NAVER LABS Unite to Enhance AMR Technology with the Rookie Robots - Robotics Tomorrow](https://www.roboticstomorrow.com/news/2024/05/15/pioneering-partnership-adlink-and-naver-labs-unite-to-enhance-amr-technology-with-the-rookie-robots/22590/)
14. [Naver debuts HyperCLOVA X LLM - The Register (April 2024)](https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/08/naver_cloud_hyperclova_llm_sovereign_ai/)
15. [Korea's internet giant Naver unveils generative AI services - TechCrunch (August 2023)](https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/24/koreas-internet-giant-naver-unveils-generative-ai-services/)
16. [Naver eyes global market with new LLM HyperCLOVA X - KED Global](https://www.kedglobal.com/artificial-intelligence/newsView/ked202308240018)