Naver开发ARCBRAIN Flow低代码机器人服务设计平台

Naver (035420.KS), which is nurturing its robot operating system (OS) platform as a new growth engine, has developed a platform that allows even non-developers to design robot services directly. With the addition of a service design tool on top of its large-scale integrated robot control system and web-based robot OS, the company has expanded its ecosystem. Analysts interpret that Naver, preparing for the commercialization of physical AI, is building a universal platform capable of connecting and operating robots from various manufacturers, and is aiming for the status of the "Android of robotics" over the long term.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 29th, Naver Labs Europe, the company's research and development (R&D) subsidiary, recently developed a platform that enables robot service design through no-code and low-code methods. On the 10th of this month, it filed a trademark for the name "ARCBRAIN Flow" with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and is also undergoing patent procedures in Europe. ARCBRAIN Flow is a solution that easily adjusts the service implementation of Naver's robot control system "ARCBRAIN" for each site. Non-developers can combine various functions such as robot movement paths and delivery completion notifications to create customized robot services.
The development of ARCBRAIN Flow is assessed as fitting the final piece of the puzzle for Naver's robot OS ecosystem "ARC." Naver established Naver Labs in 2017 to research physical AI and robotics, and has developed various robot management technologies. These include the cloud-based robot control system ARCBRAIN, the vision-based positioning technology "ARC eye" that can determine location without GPS, and the web-based robot OS "ARC mind," which the company says is the world's first. Furthermore, at its second headquarters, 1784, located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the company has applied these technologies to its in-house developed autonomous driving robot "Rookie" and verified them through delivery services and other applications. Such technological capabilities and verification experience form the backdrop for the confidence expressed by Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon at an earnings conference call last November, when she said, "We have concentrated our core capabilities on developing 'ARC,'" and "We take pride that Naver's robot software technology is at the world's highest level."
However, this system had a limitation in that services had to be redesigned once outside 1784, a robot-friendly building. To increase the versatility of Naver's robot OS, it needed to be able to easily provide robot services in ordinary buildings as well, and this was a weak point. The answer that Naver Labs researchers came up with to solve this problem is precisely ARCBRAIN Flow. A Naver official explained, "The purpose is to provide customized services tailored to customer demand at each site," adding, "We designed it so that (users of the solution) can control services as easily as moving shapes with a mouse in PowerPoint."
Through this, Naver is assessed to have laid the foundation to evolve beyond a robot operating system optimized for specific spaces into a universal platform applicable to various buildings and robots. Just as Google's Android dominated the mobile ecosystem by connecting smartphones from various manufacturers under a single operating system, Naver is likewise analyzed to be building an open ecosystem that connects robots and services from various manufacturers with its ARC platform at the forefront, aiming for the standard platform of the physical AI era.
The potential for market expansion is also cited as a basis. Currently, the large spaces where ARC OS operates as a full stack are limited to the 1784 headquarters and Tokyo Midtown Yaesu, but as robots become commercialized, demand companies and spaces could grow together. According to market research firm Global Market Insights, the robot software market is projected to grow from 29.6 billion dollars this year to 80.6 billion dollars in 2031 and 185.2 billion dollars in 2036.
Naver is also considering applying ARCBRAIN Flow to "Tokyo Midtown Yaesu," a large-scale complex building in Tokyo, Japan, the first export case of its smart building operation model. At Midtown Yaesu, which was designed without robot operation in mind, Naver paid attention to matters such as movement path design so that robots could move around smoothly, and if ARCBRAIN Flow is introduced, service operations such as robot delivery are expected to become even easier.
The key is the adoption rate. Lee Sung-yup, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Technology Management, said, "For a robot OS, what ultimately matters is how many companies adopt it," and evaluated, "Since there are many robot manufacturers that develop their own control software, Naver needs to enhance the verification experience and full-stack OS competitiveness that only it possesses."