Human-aiding robotics take center stage at Naver conference

From an autonomous robot that collects books displaced by customers from bookstore shelves to cable-based robotic arms with humanlike flexibility and control, cutting-edge robotics technologies took center stage at Naver Corp.’s annual developer’s conference Deview 2017 which kicked off in Seoul on Monday.

Naver, which dominates Korea’s mobile and internet scene as the operator of Korea’s biggest portal website, has been looking to transform itself into a tech platform company that develops and brings novel technologies into people’s everyday lives.

As part of this push toward “ambient intelligence,” Naver’s technology research and development unit Naver Labs has been accelerating the development of artificial intelligence and robotics tech, many of which were presented at the conference that continues until Tuesday.

“Naver is developing robots with aims to help people — to ease their burden of labor in places that are closest to them,” said Naver’s Chief Technology Officer Song Chang-hyun during his keynote speech.

Naver Labs featured a total of nine robots — some which are undergoing field testing and others still prototypes — that it has developed in the past year on its own or in partnership with global academic institutions.

Two robots already being tested in real-life settings are M1 — an autonomous indoor mapping robot that creates intricate 3-D maps while moving by laser-scanning its surroundings with 360-degree camera — and Around, a simpler self-driving robot that navigates itself by accessing M1’s mapping data via a cloud.

“By borrowing M1’s ‘brain,’ Around does not have to be equipped with complex sensors and parts typically required of an accurate self-driving robot. This vastly drives down prices and poses a higher chance of commercial deployment, said Naver Labs’ robotics group leader Seok Sang-ok.

Around is currently being tested at the YES24 F1963 used bookstore in Busan, as a robot which goes around the store to collect books that customers have removed from their original shelf spots. This makes it easier for employees to reshelve the books into their intended locations for systemized tracking.

At the same store, Naver Labs has also formally deployed the Aircart, an electric book cart equipped with a module that amplifies human power. In other words, a person can push a heavy cart weighing 100 kilograms as if it were an empty cart.

On the mobility front, Naver has built a four-wheeled skateboard that accelerates or decelerates by tilting the deck of the board for short distance traveling. Another creation is a four-wheeled “tusk bot” that easily climbs up stairs by leveraging two tusks installed on its front.

Naver’s robotics lab is also working with Seoul-based Korea Tech Co. to develop robotic cable-driven arms with humanlike sensitivities called Ambidex. Weighing just 2.6 kg, the robot’s core motors are placed near the torque and transfers power down to the lower arms and fingers via flexible, lightweight cable wires.

It is conducting robotics projects with globally-acclaimed universities as well. They include MIT’s Cheetah 3 — a four-wheeled robot that runs like a cheetah — and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne’s jumping robot, a small, dog-sized robot able to make high leaps.

Alongside robotics, artificial intelligence tech including machine learning and deep learning were highlighted as a foundational driver of Naver’s core tech projects including its voice assistant AI platform Clova, autonomous driving, translation services and mapping.

To continue its push Naver pledged to continue making strategic investment and acquisitions into promising tech startups that can buttress its core business areas,

So far, Naver’s venture investment arm D2 Startup Factory has invested 40 billion won ($35.5 million) in 19 local and foreign tech startups, 31 percent of which were AI-related, according to the company.

The Korean IT giant also acquired Xerox Research Center Europe, the future tech research institute under US-based Xerox in August. Now renamed Naver Labs Europe, the institute focuses on AI, machine learning natural language processing research.

In its 10th year, Deview 2017 brought together 2,700 local and foreign software developers and tech industry officials to partake in 41 sessions. The event ends Tuesday.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)