Naver's AI wing to start autonomous robot service at bookstore

By Park Sae-jin Posted : October 18, 2017, 10:35 Updated : October 18, 2017, 10:35

[Courtesy of Naver Labs]
 


Instead of an employee dragging around a heavy cart full of books at a bookstore, an autonomous robot developed by Naver Labs, an AI wing of South Korean web service giant Naver, will take over.

"We have prepared a new autonomous robot solution, based on our thought that if we reduce manufacturing costs, robots would be able to provide services in more diverse environments," Naver Labs said in a statement. "Many autonomous robots were developed, but high manufacturing costs have hampered their commercialization."

Naver Labs' librarian robot "AROUND" will take on a job at an outlet run by YES24, a major bookseller, in the southern port city of Busan. No date was given.

The librarian robot will stand by at designated points. When customers place books on its top, the robot would carry them to human employees so that they can place the books back on the shelves.

Naver Labs hopes AROUND will change the reading experience of customers. "Instead of reading books while standing next to a bookshelf, the customers can sit on comfortable chairs and hand over books to AROUND after reading." To reduce costs, key features were dispersed into a cloud platform and the robot uses comparably cheap parts instead of expensive sensors and processors.

The autonomous robot industry has seen a significant technological advance. Self-roaming robots will help humans with chores such as delivering food, guiding tourists and sorting shipments in warehouses.

 
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