At the NAVER 1784 tower in Seongnam, South Korea, a new Starbucks experience is being tested with around 100 service robots handling customer orders. The 28-floor building serves as a massive test bed for NAVER's robotic innovations. The Rookie robots, standing 110 cm tall, deliver packages, documents, coffee, and food to staff who place orders via smartphones. These robots use specialized elevators and operate on an AI, Robot, Cloud (ARC) platform connected to a private 5G network, ensuring efficient and intelligent coordination.
Managed by a data center with 3D maps, the robots communicate with servers using 5G to avoid collisions and ensure swift deliveries, traveling at speeds of one meter per second. NAVER invested 500 billion won ($380 million) in the 1784 building, which symbolizes the company's dedication to technological advances in AI, robotics, and cloud services. The building, which can house up to 7,000 people, represents a futuristic vision of automated customer service and delivery systems.
In addition to Rookie robots, NAVER 1784 features Ambidex, a dual-armed robot designed for safe customer interactions at Starbucks, and a Roboport, a specialized elevator for robots. According to Seok Sang-ok, CEO of Naver Labs, the efficient movement of many robots in a large space is a core technology that they plan to commercialize.
NAVER 1784 not only showcases the future of coffee service but also highlights the broader potential of intelligent delivery systems in various industries.
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