The golf trolley, which reaches an adult man's waist, switched to "follow mode" when a button was pressed. When the person recognized as the user moved, the golf trolley started trailing along, carrying the golf bag.
Even if another person cuts into the path, it doesn't care at all and follows the initially recognized user precisely.
The golf trolley is said to be designed to follow only the user it first recognizes by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. In addition to carrying the golf bag, it also records the user's swing posture on video and tells how far the ball has landed. This, too, is the result of using visual intelligence AI technology that recognizes people, objects and terrain features.
This single-person golf trolley is a special-purpose intelligent Autonomous Driving robot made at the robotics lab of Sena Technologies, which listed on KOSDAQ in Nov. last year.
On the 8th, we visited the Sena Technologies headquarters in Segok-dong, Seoul. The third floor of the eight-story building was used as a research and development (R&D) lab for products. Sena Technologies operates a total of four labs, including the robotics lab established in Sept. last year, a hardware lab, a software lab and a design lab. Throughout the labs, an anechoic chamber for noise testing and dedicated spaces for product tests were in place. Of the 130 employees working at the headquarters, about 100 are researchers and engineers.
Sena Technologies originally is a company that produces leisure products based on a wireless communication technology called mesh networking. It is especially well known among motorcycle riders for its smart helmets. Products applying the company's mesh communication technology can communicate directly with nearby devices without separate infrastructure. Its strength is that it accurately captures a speaker's voice and communicates stably with no latency even in the noisy environment of motorcycle riding.
Sena Technologies, which currently generates most of its revenue from the leisure segment, is preparing to make a full-fledged entry into the robotics industry. The establishment of the robotics lab in Sept. last year is part of that effort.
Sena Technologies' strategy is to leverage its accumulated communication technology know-how to preempt the niche market of "communication between robots and workers."
Hwang Jae-cheol, head of the robotics lab at Sena Technologies, said, "Before long, an era will come when humanoid robots are deployed en masse on production floors," adding, "At that time, communication between robots and people will be harder than you think."
Hwang, who graduated from the mechanical design department at Seoul National University, worked at the manufacturing technology research center at Samsung Electronics for 17 years before moving to Sena Technologies in 2019.
Hwang explained, "For example, even when you want to stop a robot, most of the time you currently have to go and press the emergency button yourself or stop it from a control server," and "Even if voice recognition is possible, accurately capturing and relaying a person's voice in the noisy environment of industrial sites remains a major challenge."
Hwang said, "No matter how good the infrastructure is, if you can't deliver accurate voice commands through the on-site noise, the robotics industry can never be complete," adding, "Our goal is to implement 'ultra-low-latency, two-way voice communication' technology that accurately recognizes workers' commands even amid noise and relays the robot's responses in real time, based on the know-how we have accumulated."
Another key goal is to develop finished robot products that consumers can purchase and use directly. Hwang emphasized, "Most robots on the market today are industry-specialized models used in factories, and in reality robot vacuum cleaners are the only robots that ordinary consumers can buy with money," adding, "We aim to provide products that can be supplied to general consumers."
The first outcome is expected to be this single-person golf trolley. Sena Technologies plans to complete mass production preparations by the end of this year and begin full-scale sales early next year. In particular, it will differentiate between personal-use and rental models, aiming the personal-use model for general sales in the U.S. and European markets while targeting the domestic market with the rental model to secure an early foothold.
Hwang said, "We are in concrete and active discussions with domestic golf courses for adoption," adding, "As early as the end of this year, full-scale deliveries and revenue are expected to begin as the business rolls out." In addition, Sena Technologies is also developing a robot to clean the ship's hull (the bottom of a vessel).
It has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Clobot, a company providing robot control platform services. Hwang explained, "Collaboration with Clobot will allow Sena Technologies' technology to take hold early as a standard in the robotics industry through Clobot's ecosystem, without having to target each individual robot manufacturer one by one." The joint solution development with Clobot is scheduled to be completed in the second half of this year.
On a consolidation basis in the first half of this year, Sena Technologies tentatively reported sales of 106.1 billion won and operating profit of 8.1 billion won. As of the end of last year, net worth stood at 205.7 billion won.
However, it is a concern that the stock has not recovered to the peak reached at the time of its initial public offering (IPO). Sena Technologies' share price, which rose 41.20% on the listing day to 80,200 won, hit the daily limit-up on the 8th but is still 51,900 won.
Kim Hong-sik, an analyst at Hana Securities, said of Sena Technologies, "Because it has mesh networking technology that can form its own network without existing communication infrastructure, it could draw attention as a strong alternative for physical AI robot communications going forward," adding, "Despite high growth potential, the price-to-book ratio (PBR) is only around 1.3 times, leaving it significantly undervalued compared with domestic and overseas peers."