NAVER (035420) will introduce a technology called ARC brain Flow at its second headquarters, 1784, this year, letting non-specialists design robot routes and roles on their own. The tool allows robots to carry out a sequence of actions from taking orders to delivery without coding, part of a plan to lower technical barriers and bring robot services into the mainstream.
NAVER LABS Europe completed patent applications in Korea and the United States earlier this month for ARC brain Flow, a robot service design platform, according to information technology industry sources on the 6th. NAVER plans to build a new robot service using the technology at 1784 as soon as it finishes updating Rookie 2, its next-generation autonomous driving robot.
ARC brain Flow is a design tool that makes NAVER's robot control system, ARC brain, easier to use. Existing control systems required managers to enter code line by line to set the routes and work methods of the many robots moving through a building. That put the systems beyond the reach of ordinary managers unfamiliar with programming languages.
ARC brain Flow sharply simplifies the process. Commands for robots are set as words, allowing users to lay out the order and rules of tasks intuitively. Arranging command cards such as "take order," "payment" and "serving" in sequence, for example, makes the robot move accordingly. Even when the service environment or the work changes, only the relevant portion needs to be revised.
NAVER will first apply the technology to coffee deliveries by Rookie 2 for employees working at 1784. After checking on-site usability and stability, the company plans to expand the scope to more demanding tasks such as delivering lunch boxes and documents. ARC brain Flow will then be rolled out in stages to smart buildings in Saudi Arabia and Japan that already use NAVER's robot control system.
Industry officials see lowering the barrier to using robot control systems as a central task for commercializing such services. Building managers without in-house developers could implement the robot services they want to match their site conditions and purposes, which would rapidly widen the pool of potential users. NAVER expects the technology to spread across industries including food and beverage delivery, parcel services and in-house office support, and to become a core pillar of the robot service ecosystem.
NAVER is also working to advance the technology beyond arranging robot tasks as preset keywords, toward a natural-language approach that would let users issue commands in everyday speech. The work involves incorporating artificial intelligence agents so that complex multiple commands inside a building can be carried out immediately. Ultimately, the company plans to build a system in which an AI agent detects errors in a user's route and rule design on its own and proposes optimal alternatives.
"We plan to expand the countries covered by the ARC brain Flow patent applications and the scope of rights in stages," a NAVER official said. "Once the technology is commercialized, it will lay the groundwork for anyone anywhere to easily use robot services, regardless of country, industry or level of expertise."
