Korea-based KT and Neubility agreed to conduct joint research on outdoor autonomous robots, with the aim of commercialising the technology across various sectors and working to ease regulatory hurdles.

As part of the agreement, KT will develop a robot integration platform powered by its 5G network.

In a statement, head of KT’s AI robot business Lee Sang-ho (pictured, front left) noted the pair will collaborate to bring self-driving robot services to outdoor spaces, expanding the market beyond homes and buildings.

Neubility, a start-up set up in 2017, develops hardware and software for self-driving robots guided by cameras, instead of more commonly used Lidar (light detecting and ranging) technology. It offers clients a robot as a service API kit.

Since 2021, KT launched a number of robots designed to perform basis services at hotels, restaurants and hospitals. The units run on its in-house developed integration platform.