Interview Navifra seeks autonomous mobile robot market leadership with precision technology
Navifra CEO Park Joong-tae attends a meeting at the company's office in Seocho District, Seoul, in this undated handout photo. Courtesy of Navifra
As the global industrial robot market rapidly expands in the wake of the advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, manufacturers are increasingly seeking ways to deploy large numbers of robots on factory floors while minimizing operational errors in repetitive tasks.
One company addressing this challenge is Navifra, a Korean software developer for autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Founded in 2022, the startup offers solutions for robots to navigate manufacturing sites while staying accurate within 5 millimeters, making them a popular choice for production line logistics for major manufacturers.
“When it comes to automation, you expect machines to perform the same task within a fixed margin of error, even if they repeat it 10 million times,” Navifra CEO Park Joong-tae said in an interview with The Korea Times.
“It’s the same with mobility — it must repeat the same motion over and over. Our solution ensures that whether you operate 100 or 1,000 robots, each one stops within a 5-millimeter margin, enhancing both stability and precision.”
Navifra CEO Park Joong-tae gestures during a meeting with employees at the company's office in Seocho District, Seoul, in this undated handout photo. Courtesy of Navifra
Navifra’s key solutions are NaviCore and NaviBrain. NaviCore is an autonomous mobility software embedded in each AMR, enabling precision control. NaviBrain is a fleet management system that coordinates 100 or more robots, allowing simultaneous route generation and control across the entire AMR network.
“Humans rarely lose track of where they are when moving, but robots do even with a slight change in the environment,” Park said. “What matters in mobility technology is ensuring that a robot never loses its position and maintaining the same level of positional accuracy even after hundreds of thousands of repetitions.”
The global AMR technology market has reached a relatively mature stage, with many companies offering their own solutions. As fleets grow larger, however, even the smallest margin of error can be amplified into major operational issues. This is prompting manufacturers to seek more advanced simultaneous localization and mapping technologies, which allow robots to build precise maps of unknown environments while determining their own position within them, as well as more intelligent fleet management systems.
“Let’s say you are trying to move 100 robots across a narrow bridge that only one can pass at a time,” Park said.
“You have to decide which robot goes first and where to make the others stop, and even those small details matter. In the past, we used rule-based algorithms to set every condition manually, but as the number of robots increases, the rules become too complex and prone to errors. That is why we now use NaviBrain AI to manage the fleet. We are also accelerating the development of decentralized systems that allow robots to communicate with others to make their own calculations while moving.”
Autonomous mobile robots are tested at a Navifra's test site in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of Navifra
The automotive industry has strong demand for such technologies, including a U.S.-based electric vehicle (EV) plant. Since 2023, Navifra has been supplying solutions for 180 AMRs used in the assembly and press lines at the EV plant, and has also been providing software for 80 robots operating on a battery pack line for the plant.
At the plant, Navifra’s system manages complex mapping and cross-path navigation across a large production floor. By integrating QR codes and other markers, the company’s software enables real-time heading correction, allowing each robot to maintain its precise trajectory even in high-traffic zones. In addition, the development of a camera-based docking function has further enhanced positioning accuracy, ensuring a precision within 5 millimeters.
“The automotive factory environment is far more challenging than it looks,” Park said. “Environments constantly change as materials pile up and workers move around. That means you cannot just install the system once and leave it. The solution has to be scaled up gradually and continuously fine-tuned. Because clients demand high stability, companies without accumulated know-how find it difficult to sustain operations.”
Along with the EV plant, Navifra has been operating its solutions for 80 robots at a Korean battery firm's package manufacturing site in Hungary since 2023, and nine wafer carrier robots for a semiconductor company's fabs in Korea since 2024.
Park noted that the global AMR market is entering a stage where technological maturity and market demand are aligned, adding that its growth potential remains strong. However, Chinese robot firms have already begun dominating the retail-focused industrial robot market, which requires low-cost hardware and high-speed operations.
Navifra is concentrating on manufacturing environments that demand higher precision and operational know-how. While most AMRs are currently used indoors, Park sees growing potential for autonomous robots in outdoor logistics, such as truck loading and unloading operations.
Navifra participated in CES 2023 and 2024, and also intends to take part next year. The company wrapped up its Series A fundraising in March 2024, and now has tech-oriented accelerator FuturePlay as its second-largest shareholder after Park.
“Starting this autumn, we will expand our portfolio into robot hardware so that we can provide turnkey solutions for clients,” Park said. “With existing project references from major companies, we plan to leverage those experiences as a springboard to promote our competitiveness and actively explore overseas markets.”
Park said the company aims to achieve 20 billion won ($13.9 million) in sales next year, adding that its ultimate goal is to build a sustainable robotics business rather than pursuing short-term growth.