In an interview with TechCrunch, Martin Humenberger, the director of Science at Naver Labs Europe, shared that the company's long-term vision is to create useful robots for everyday life, including robot assistants for homes, hospitals, museums, shopping malls, and airports. Naver Labs Europe is focusing on AI technology for robotics, developing computer vision methods for robot perception, new methods for sequential decision making and combinational optimization, and technology that allows efficient interaction between robots and humans via language.
Key takeaways:
- Naver, the South Korean internet giant, has been developing autonomous robots, AI, and autonomous driving technology through its R&D division, Naver Labs, since 2013. The company believes that these technologies could drive its future growth and replace mobile phones one day.
- Naver Labs' research is focused on five areas: robotics, AI, digital twins, computer vision/augmented reality, and autonomous driving technology. The company's long-term vision is to create useful robots for everyday life, including robot assistants at home, hospitals, museums, shopping malls, airports, etc.
- Naver's robots, called Rookies, are already in use at the company's second headquarters, Naver 1784, and its new data center, Gak Sejong. They deliver parcels, coffee, and lunch to Naver’s employees, all using 5G. They are controlled by the ARC system, an intelligence system for robots powered by the Naver Cloud Platform, which reduces the robot's manufacturing cost and battery consumption.
- While Naver Labs Europe focuses on the fundamentals of AI and overcoming current and future challenges in AI, Naver Labs Korea focuses on researching and developing robotics, systems engineering, and platform engineering and operations. The primary research area of Naver Labs Europe is AI technology for robotics, including computer vision methods for next-generation robot perception and new methods for sequential decision making and combinational optimization.