Naver Corp., South Korea’s leading online portal operator, announced plans to go beyond software to transform itself into a comprehensive IT company, a global trend in line with other household names including Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

The Korean tech giant showcased its self-developed robots and wearable devices for kids at Deview 2017, a conference for developers held on Monday in Seoul.

One of the new products revealed at the conference was Around, a robot that would “pave the way for commercialization of indoor automated robots” thanks to its dramatically lower manufacturing costs, according to Naver. The robot that goes around the shop to arrange books is currently under trial at a Yes24 bookstore in Busan.

Other robots on display were an improved version of indoor mapping robot M1, Aircart, four-wheel skateboard Personal Last-Mile Mobility, robot arm Ambidex, Cheetah Robot, Jumping Robot, stair-climbing Tuskbot, and self-driving TT-bot.

“When developing robots, the first question we asked ourselves was in what areas around us can we ease the labor burden?” Song Chang-hyun, chief technology officer at Naver and head of its R&D subsidiary Naver Labs Corp., said at his keynote speech.

Naver Labs is currently working on robot-related projects with leading academic institutions including MIT and the University of Illionois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. and Seoul University and Korea University of Technology & Education in South Korea.

The company said it also aims to deliver level 4 self-driving vehicles by the end of the year. Level 4 refers to a high autonomous system that can perform all safety-critical driving functions with the person only required to enter the destination and driving mode.

Naver also revealed Aki, a GPS tracking watch for kids that ensures accurate tracking even in challenging indoor environments.

By Oh Chan-jong

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