Naver to unveil world’s first web platform-enabled robotics OS

South Korea’s online giant Naver Corp. is set to make inroads into the global robotics operating system market by unveiling the world’s first web platform-enabled OS for robotics at a tech fair in Saudi Arabia.

Naver said on Tuesday it plans to unveil ARC mind powered by Whale OS, which combines Whale web platform technology with robotics software technology for high scalability enabled by the web platform, at LEAP 2024, a major tech show in Riyadh. The South Korean tech behemoth unveiled Whale OS in 2021.

“ARC mind will empower developers to integrate numerous web applications into robot services and will provide specialized web API for the controlling, recognizing and moving of robots,” Naver said in a statement, referring to the application programming interface.

“This signifies that web developers across the globe will now be able to use ARC mind to easily develop diverse robot services.”

Naver plans to implement the OS into its own robots first and then expand it to a fully open ecosystem as it aims to become an open web platform for developers worldwide.

The global robot software market is expected to more than quadruple to $69.7 billion by 2032 from $17.3 billion last year, according to industry research firm IMARC Group.

Big Tech companies have already been in the robot software development tool market. Google LLC launched the Google Cloud Robotics Platform, while Amazon Web Services released the AWS RoboMaker.

NO NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT TOOLS THAT RELY ON SPECIFIC OS

ARC mind allows users to connect various web applications with robot services and control various heterogeneous robot hardware.

The OS provides a dedicated API to control the location and movement of robots and provide self-driving services, which require judgment, on the web. The system is also equipped with a specialized API, which can communicate with an open-source framework robot OS, a must for robot software development.

ARC mind has a simpler structure than existing OS for robotics, making it lightweight and fast. It also provides over-the-air (OTA) technology that uses wireless communication to update software in real-time.

The OS based on web technology allows users to develop robot services in the web ecosystem without development tools, which depend on a specific OS. Web developers can also build, integrate and expand robot services under web standards through API, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) dedicated to robots.

By combining the latest web apps including those for reservations, orders, payment and face recognition as needed, a delivery robot can be developed into one with new functions such as face recognition payments, for example.

COOPERATION WITH SAMSUNG

Naver is also set to unveil the next-generation Robotics Edge Computing Platform currently in joint development with Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top memory chipmaker.

This project aims to combine Naver’s OS and software solutions with Samsung’s semiconductor solutions, including system-on-chip and image sensors, to create an integrated Robotics Edge Computing Platform, according to Naver.

The company plans to accelerate the popularization of robotics through the partnership.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.