Naver says it's constructing world’s first robot-friendly building

The world’s first “robot-friendly” building will complete construction in the second half of this year by South Korea’s tech giant Naver Corp., according to the company.

Naver said on July 5 that its second office building, to be built near its current headquarters in Seongnam city, will be equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and robot technologies based on a total of 237 patents.

The company said that the new office will be the world’s first robot-friendly building with elevators and hallways to be exclusively used by robots, as well as multiple charging stations for the robots. Naver added that the building can be seen as the first of its kind, in that it adopts an unprecedented degree of AI, cloud and robot technologies.

Naver explained that under the key concept of the “natural co-existence between humans and robots,” the building will house a wide range of robots and AI technologies.

Some examples include an AI-based face recognition system that will allow employees to enter buildings and meeting rooms without having to carry ID cards, and an AI secretary that will write down meeting minutes on the go. Naver added there will be robots serving drinks such as coffee, as well as delivering documents and newspapers.

The building will comprise over 10,000 square meters with eight floors underground and 29 floors above ground level.

The tech company said that 5G networks will be used for the building’s AI, robot and cloud operations. The South Korean government has recently allowed non-telecom companies to set up small-scale 5G networks to provide specialized services.

“Being the first of its kind in the world, our robot-friendly building will connect the latest technologies, from 5G, cloud, robots, self-driving, to digital twins, all in one infrastructure,” said Naver Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok.

Write to Joo-wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.