Naver's Humanoid 'Mininoid' Unveiled... Test Launch at Headquarters by End of This Month

Naver Cloud will deploy humanoid robots, which walk bipedally in a human-like form, at its headquarters as early as the end of this month. Humanoid robots are considered one of the core elements for realizing physical artificial intelligence (AI).

Kim Yuwon, CEO of Naver Cloud, stated during the keynote speech at Naver's annual conference 'DAN25,' held on the morning of November 6 at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, "Naver Labs is preparing a humanoid robot," adding, "By the end of this month, you will be able to see a humanoid robot about 1 meter tall at the Naver headquarters." It is reported that this robot will initially perform simple tasks such as delivering coffee at Naver's headquarters, 1784.

Kim Yuwon, CEO of Naver Cloud, is delivering the keynote speech at Naver's annual conference 'DAN25' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the morning of the 6th. Provided by Naver

During the earlier keynote speech by CEO Choi Sooyoun, a presentation slide also revealed an image of a robot believed to be 'Mininoid,' the humanoid robot developed by Naver Labs. Mininoid operates in conjunction with Naver's robot cloud platform 'ARC' and the web-based robot operating system (OS) 'ARC Mind.'

In a subsequent press conference, CEO Kim explained, "The development of the humanoid robot is in its final stages, so I have not yet seen it walking," but added, "The focus is on experimenting with the physical AI platform, OS, and application programming interfaces (APIs)."

Naver Cloud is building an industry-specific AI ecosystem with physical AI technology that operates in industrial settings. Physical AI refers to AI that interacts with the physical world and can act proactively in real-world environments, just like humans. Naver began its research on robotics and autonomous driving in 2016, and in 2021, advanced to physical AI based on foundation models.

In his keynote speech, CEO Kim introduced, "Physical AI is technology that enables machines to perceive and understand space, make decisions, and act autonomously," and added, "Naver's physical AI is evolving through a virtuous cycle of three elements: accumulated data from the real world, a cloud platform, and onboard AI (AI embedded in devices)."