Naver Labs AMBIDEX

AMBIDEX is a dual-arm research robot from NAVER LABS, the research arm of Korean internet company NAVER, developed with the university KOREATECH. Its arms are cable-driven, with the heavy motors in the shoulder and torso, so each arm is lighter than a human one and safe around people. It is neither a walking robot nor a commercial product.

History and launch

NAVER LABS unveiled AMBIDEX at its DEVIEW conference in 2017 as a robot arm with a novel cable-driven mechanism. It is the result of long-term collaboration with KOREATECH (Korea University of Technology and Education), particularly Professor Yong-Jae Kim.

At CES 2019 NAVER LABS and Qualcomm demonstrated AMBIDEX as a 5G "brainless robot", using the network's low latency for precise control without a powerful onboard processor. In November 2020 NAVER LABS showed an expanded version with a waist, a sensor head and a BLT gripper, and in 2022 it described a redesigned platform with head, torso, waist and arms.

Design and hardware

All the heavy actuators sit in the shoulder and body, and the arm joints are moved by cables. This makes the arm lighter than a human arm, and force-enhancing mechanisms in each joint give, according to NAVER LABS, industrial-robot levels of control, performance and precision. Each arm has 7 degrees of freedom, like a human arm.

The 2020 version added a waist that extends the workspace, a sensor head for object perception and the BLT Gripper, which can switch between grasping methods. NAVER LABS does not publish full specifications such as weight, height or payload.

Software and AI

Through the AMBIDEX Task Learning project NAVER LABS teaches the robot "physical intelligence": motor skills people perform without thinking but find hard to describe, such as spreading jam or taking coins from a pocket. The concept comes from MIT professor Sangbae Kim, a NAVER LABS adviser.

Data is collected with a 1:1-scale haptic device that has 7 DoF per arm and bilateral teleoperation, passing force in both directions. Force data from a human demonstration serves as the learning reference, including for reinforcement learning, and NAVER LABS says the robot can perform a task on its own after a single demonstration.

Applications

AMBIDEX is a research platform aimed at safe human-robot collaboration in homes and services. NAVER LABS has not announced sales or commercial deployments.

Manufacturer

NAVER LABS is the research division of NAVER, South Korea's largest search and internet portal. It also develops service robots (the AROUND family, Rookie), data-centre robots (GaRo, SeRo), autonomous transport (ALT-B) and the ARC cloud robot control platform.

Timeline

• 2017-10 AMBIDEX arm unveiled at DEVIEW
• 2019-01 5G control demo with Qualcomm at CES 2019
• 2020-11 Version with waist and sensor head; Task Learning project
• 2022-03 Redesign of the full platform

Sources

1. AMBIDEX: Dual-arm robot with innovative mechanism for safe interaction with humans, NAVER LABS (2026)
2. AMBIDEX, robot arm with innovative cable-driven mechanisms, NAVER LABS (2017-10-16)
3. NAVER's CES 2019 Booth Sketch & Demonstrations of AMBIDEX and AROUND G, NAVER LABS (2019-01-09)
4. Unveiling the AMBIDEX Task Learning Project and Delivery Robot AROUND D at 2020 Global Forum, NAVER LABS (2020-11-11)
5. AMBIDEX Design, Robot Movement, and Human Interaction, NAVER LABS (2022-03-10)

Updated: 2026-10-10

Compared with the catalogue

• It is the only Naver Labs model in the catalogue and one of 9 humanoids from South Korea.

Capabilities