At Samsung Research America (SRA) located in Mountain View, California, USA, a four-legged robot dog called ‘Spot’ was on patrol duty on the 18th of this month. This robot dog was created by Boston Dynamics, which was acquired by Hyundai Motor Group in 2020.
Two years ago, SRA introduced Spot as a security guard and it was named ‘Patrol Paw’ after an employee contest. Patrol Paw performs 24-hour patrol duties and reports any facility damage, incidents, and accidents to the security team.
Patrol Paw is responsible for guarding SRA, a research and development facility located in the heart of Silicon Valley. The facility spans 36,000 square meters, which is equivalent to the size of five soccer fields. SRA is a hub for global IT companies and research institutes, with Google’s headquarters complex Googleplex, NASA Ames Research Center, and Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus all within a 5-kilometer radius.
Park Sung-ho, head of SRA’s strategy team, stated that the facility is dedicated to researching and developing various topics, including hardware, software, services, and platforms. Currently, SRA has about 700 Samsung employees working on-site. SRA was established in 1988 and moved to Mountain View in Dec. 2015, consolidating several research centers across the United States.
Samsung Electronics’ future core technologies have been under research by SRA, focusing on the philosophy of ‘being the foundation of innovative excellence’. Initially, SRA was involved in hardware research including PCs, monitors, and hard disk drives until the early 2000s. However, it expanded its research areas from the mid-2000s to include digital health, cameras, multimedia, software platforms, voice assistants, artificial intelligence (AI), 6G (sixth-generation telecommunications), and robotics.
Recently, there has been a significant increase in AI research. The Galaxy AI, which is used in Samsung Electronics’ latest AI phone series - the ‘Galaxy S24′, was initially researched at the ‘SRA AI Center’ established in 2018. The SRA is also conducting research on AI technology that aims to provide a personalized experience to individual users, with the ultimate goal of enhancing their experience.
SRA is currently working on several projects, including the AI-based chef assistant robot called ‘Samsung Bot Chef’, an AI companion robot named ‘Ballie’ that can follow humans like a pet and execute commands, the world’s first 3D Omni View camera, Samsung Electronics’ wearable device Gear, and the artificial human project called ‘Neon’.
Roh Won-il, the president of the research center, stated that “SRA aims to drive creative technological innovation for the future of Samsung Electronics, with experts gathered from various fields.” He added that at SRA, they encourage learning from bold mistakes, speaking up for what is right and supporting each other in all aspects.
