Naver, Swiss-Mile work on robotic solutions for Saudi digital twins
Digital twin integration to enable robotic services in Saudi smart cities
#Saudi #digitaltwins - South Korean digital leader NAVER Corp. announced a pioneering collaboration with Swiss-Mile during its NAVER Team conference DAN24, according national media. The spinoff of ETH Zürich’s Robotic Systems Lab is working with Naver to manage the deployment of service robots via the Saudi smart city digital twin. Last year, NAVER win a contract - said to be worth $100 million - to develop a cloud-based digital twin platform for five Saudi cities. The digital twin is being built on the national municipalities digital portal, Balady.
SO WHAT? - Naver has already developed an extensive digital twin platform for South Korea’s capital city of Seoul. The tech company’s platform allows the digital twin to provide services to government, business and consumers via a photo-realistic 3D simulation of the city. Naver’s experience and cutting edge technology was clearly a key factor in its successful bid to build digital twins for five cities in Saudi Arabia. Support for robots is built-in to its digital twin solution. However, the fact that Naver is experimenting with new partners such as Swiss-Mile on deploying robotic solutions to deploy in Saudi, shows that this is no cookie-cut solution and the digital twins being developed for Saudi cities will be truly unique.
Here are some key points about the Saudi digital twin project:
NAVER Corp. was awarded contract valued at $100 million last year to build and operate digital twins for Jeddah, Riyadh, Medina, Mecca, and Dammam: its first large-scale technology deal in the Middle East.
NAVER revealed a joint research project with Swiss-Mile at the DAN24 conference on November 11th, focusing on integrating robotics for digital twin applications. For example, the project could enable the digital twins to deploy autonomous service robots on Saudi construction sites.
Swiss-Mile’s wheeled-legged robots can navigate diverse environments, carry payloads, and perform complex tasks like opening doors, making them suitable for Saudi Arabia’s varied urban settings.
Swiss-Mile’s robots could contribute to operational safety and efficiency on Saudi construction sites, offering advanced mobility and autonomy to address labor challenges.
NAVER also showcased simulations for flood response in Jeddah and municipal planning in Medina at DAN24, demonstrating the new platform’s potential for proactive urban management.
NAVER Cloud, the company’s cloud service arm, partnered with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC) in July to integrate the smart city digital twin project with Balady, the Kingdom’s national municipalities portal.
The DAN24 event also saw Naver introduce TwinXR, a unified AI platform integrating cloud and digital twin technology for enhanced city planning and real-time monitoring across urban areas.
NAVER will also collaborate with Japan’s NTT East on developing robotics and augmented reality (AR) solutions to support smart building initiatives.
Saudi Arabia’s digital twin projects align with Saudi Vision 2030’s goals, incorporating solutions like 3D mapping, flood simulation, and monitoring systems to support urban growth.
ZOOM OUT - NAVER’s strategic push into the Saudi market has been supported heavily by the South Korean government over the past two years. In addition to the company’s own commercial efforts, it has been championed in Saudi Arabia by several government ministers. The announcement of Naver’s deal to build the Kingdom’s digital twins was announced in October last year during the official visit of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. Naver Corp. recorded revenues of $7.34 billion last year and its largest shareholders are Korean National Pension Service (9% and BlackRock (5%). It is listed on the Seoul stock exchange.