At Naver 1784, robots scurry about and scrub other robots

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At Naver 1784, robots scurry about and scrub other robots

Naver's second headquarters building, Naver 1784 [NAVER]

Naver's second headquarters building, Naver 1784 [NAVER]

 
Naver's second headquarters building is now up and running, with robots zooming about the futuristic halls and riding robot-only elevators to complete cloud-assigned tasks.
 
The company described its newly built office building, Naver 1784, as a "giant testbed." From robotics to cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), the building is packed with cutting-edge technologies.
 
Situated next to and connected to the Naver Green Factory headquarters building, Naver 1784 was named after its address — 178-4 Jeongja-dong, Bundang District — as well as the year when the Industrial Revolution began. Naver 1784's translucent exterior wall is silver-colored, unlike Naver Green Factory, which is green.
 
Naver 1784 rises 28 stories and has eight basement levels. According to the company, the building can accommodate over 5,000 employees, with a gross floor area of 165,000 square meters (1.8 million square feet), 1.6 times the floor area of the Green Factory building.  
 
Employees will finish moving in during the first half, said the company.
 
An employee puts a package in a delivery robot Rookie. [NAVER]

An employee puts a package in a delivery robot Rookie. [NAVER]

 
 
On Wednesday, Naver opened the new building's doors to give local media a sneak peek into the venue.
 
The space inside the building was bright and open, with a wooden floor and high ceiling. Naver described 1784 as "the world's first robot-friendly" building, and true to its word, visitors were met with robots roaming around the floors as they arrived on the sixth floor of the building, where a robot delivery center is located.  
 
Rookie, developed by Naver Labs, is a 5G-powered brainless delivery robot, meaning that it is connected to Naver's ARC cloud system, which controls all the robots in the building.  
 
Naver's Rookie delivery robot moves between floors on a robot-only elevator. [NAVER]

Naver's Rookie delivery robot moves between floors on a robot-only elevator. [NAVER]

 
Short for AI, robot and cloud, ARC is a multi-robot intelligence system, as Naver puts it, which acts as a shared brain for robots that work alongside human employees in the building, performing tasks like transporting items around the office.
 
When an employee at the center places a package inside Rookie, it glides over the floor and patiently waits for an elevator designed only for robots to arrive. Rookie passes through gates that automatically open when it approaches, and hands the package to the recipient. The recipients will be able to get a notification for their package delivery through the company's mobile application.
 
 
Ambidex, a robot with two arms, was jointly developed by Naver Labs and Korea University of Technology & Education and will be used for keeping delivery robots clean. [NAVER]

Ambidex, a robot with two arms, was jointly developed by Naver Labs and Korea University of Technology & Education and will be used for keeping delivery robots clean. [NAVER]

 
Rookie will also offer coffee and meal delivery services, according to Naver. The company aims to operate about 100 robots this year.
 
Naver is developing other types of robots as well. Ambidex, jointly developed by Naver Labs and Korea University of Technology & Education, has two robot arms that can wipe the surfaces of other robots. Ambidex is currently on a test run and will be utilized for keeping Rookie clean, said Naver.
 
On the fourth floor is a 991-square-meter in-house hospital. The center will provide both online and offline medical services for its employees using Naver's healthcare technologies.  
 
Other advanced technologies crammed into every nook and cranny of the building. For example, Naver employees can walk through the entrance gate without any security check, thanks to the face recognition technology of Naver CLOVA.
 
"We expect that all the test projects we try in this place will lead to new innovations and services," Naver said.
 

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]
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