[AI Revolution](108) Newbility, Creator of Autonomous Robots, Receives 'Thumbs Up' from Jensen Huang

Newbility Advances AI Technology Through NVIDIA Startup Growth Support Program
Implements 'Camera-Based' Autonomous Driving Without Using LiDAR

On the 2nd, at Computex 2024, Asia's largest IT exhibition held in Taiwan, a robot appeared on stage during the keynote speech by Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. This robot, about knee-high to an adult and equipped with four wheels, autonomously navigated freely around CEO Jensen Huang. He introduced the robot as "the next wave of AI, the future of robotics." This robot is 'NewBee,' created by the Korean company Newbility.

The reason NewBee appeared on stage with Jensen Huang is that Newbility has been enhancing its AI technology through NVIDIA's startup growth support program since 2021. Newbility developed its own autonomous driving algorithm by equipping the autonomous robot NewBee with NVIDIA's 'edge computing platform.'

'Newbie' Appears on Stage at NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's Keynote Speech

On the 14th, Lee Sang-min, CEO of Newbility, said, "Newbility's mission is to provide service robots that solve everyday problems to the market at the most appropriate time." To achieve this, NewBee is equipped with AI-based visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technology. This technology creates a map of the surrounding environment while simultaneously locating itself within the created map. Generally, 3D SLAM uses a combination of cameras and LiDAR, but Newbility implemented autonomous driving using only visual data collected from cameras to provide an economical and scalable robot service. NewBee operates by estimating its position in real-time based on visual information obtained through cameras and generating a map of the surrounding environment.

In particular, the AI-based visual SLAM technology used in NewBee helps the robot recognize various elements in the surrounding environment?such as people, obstacles, and traffic signals?more accurately and quickly. Newbility has maintained a high level of autonomous driving capability even in unfamiliar environments by leveraging data accumulated from services conducted in various settings, including indoor and outdoor environments, day and night conditions, campuses, golf courses, campsites, and urban areas. CEO Lee stated, "We have all the personnel for software, hardware, and autonomous driving technology development in-house," adding, "Based on our unique technology and service operation experience, we will continue to provide various robot services that will innovate everyday life."

CEO Sangmin Lee is explaining Newbility's AI autonomous driving technology.

Newbility offers two main services: robot delivery and patrol services. Up to this year, they have conducted delivery and patrol services in 17 domestic and international locations, and plan to launch a large-scale robot delivery service in central Seoul in the second half of the year. Next year, they intend to expand their service areas to major cities nationwide.

They are also accelerating their overseas expansion. Recently, they partnered with South Florida Security (SFS), a U.S. integrated security service company, to jointly conduct a PoC (Proof of Concept) for localizing patrol robot services. Through this collaboration, Newbility will deploy patrol robots at the Doral Isles Clubhouse, a luxury residential complex with 1,700 households located in Miami, Florida. CEO Lee said, "We will continue to focus on technology development to showcase the excellence of Korean robot technology in the global market."