Seongnam Moran Traditional Market will become the first traditional market in Korea to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) porter robots.
Seongnam City announced Monday that it had been selected in the "2026 Gyeonggi Province AI Challenge Program," organized by the provincial government, and will launch the project.
Gyeonggi Province has been identifying innovative public services that use AI technology to solve community issues. Seongnam City secured 250 million won in provincial funding by proposing a project titled "Demonstration of AI-Based Augmented Reality (AR) Navigation and AI Porter Robot Services for Mobility-Impaired Users in Traditional Markets."
The city will conduct its experiment primarily at Seongnam Moran Traditional Market, Korea's largest traditional market, aiming to improve mobility for elderly people, people with disabilities and other transportation-vulnerable groups.
When a user scans a QR code at the market entrance, the AI porter robot will follow the user and carry up to 20 kilograms of goods on their behalf.
In parallel, the city will operate an "AI-based AR navigation" service using Naver's ARC-Eye technology. The service will guide users through the market's complex alleys and to store locations within a margin of error of ±30 centimeters, even without GPS.
To carry out the project, Seongnam City has formed a consortium with Hyper Cloud, a spatial computing specialist, and Jo&Soft, a cloud infrastructure specialist. Naver Cloud is participating as a technical support institution.
Seongnam Moran Traditional Market has a long history but is known for its complex layout and narrow alleys. GPS signals are also difficult to receive there.
Seongnam City, however, judged that such an extremely challenging environment would be the ideal stage for demonstrating autonomous driving robots.
The city plans to focus on on-site deployment and demonstration operations of the AI porter robots from August to October.
The demonstration data obtained through the project is expected to contribute to the future development of physical AI technology in the public sector.
"Solving the oldest inconveniences with the newest technology is the 'AI beside people' that Seongnam City pursues," said Kim Gyu-seung, an officer at Seongnam City's AI Semiconductor Division who planned the project. "We will improve mobility for transportation-vulnerable users and build a national standard model where advanced technology and traditional markets coexist."
