Saeon looks toward globally competitive software coding robot platforms

Since June 2013 when Saeon Co., Ltd. (www.saeon.co.kr) was founded at Korea’s Daejeon Technopark, the company has been in the business of turning imagination into reality using ingenuity and creativity. After only 5 years, the company is still a newcomer start-up, with the goal of manufacturing software coding robot platforms that are globally competitive.

▲Intelligent robot 'Altino'

Saeon’s business divisions comprise their flagship product, the intelligent robot Altino; the company’s Saeon Edu franchise; and CELLO, the portable Emotional Lamp that brought company into the fold of the lighting field.

Altino’s development was finalized in 2014, and, with active marketing beginning in 2015, it is spearheading a new era of intelligent robots. With front wheel steering and car-like mechanisms encased in an automobile form, the intelligent robot Altino comes equipped with seven sensors and various display devices such as a gyro sensor, compass, tri-axial acceleration, obstacle sensor, temperature sensor, illumination sensor, and remote control to facilitate a wide range of coding practice. Autonomous driving and other driving algorithms can be implemented by distributed processing of sensor networks. It is popular among students and non-professionals who want to study robot mechanisms using the assembly and disassembly model. This product has achieved high sales in the public education market and is currently being used as education and research platforms in 56 universities and 50 high schools, as well as 8 research institutes. Various solutions can be implemented with just one model, thereby reducing costs and maximizing the educational effect.

▲Emotional Lamp 'CELLO'

So far, the company has sold over 7000 Altino units. Starting with the domestic market, then branching out overseas, the company now exports to 11 countries. With local partners, the company has even entered the US market. Interestingly, according to the company, there has been a steady trend of faster overseas sales growth, compared to the domestic one. Encouraged by the fast growth in the US market – namely, Hawaii and San Francisco – the company is actively engaged in marketing activities there.

Altino costs 390,000 won. The products being offered are the basic model, the Arduino type, and the Raspberry Pi model. The differences between these models can be found in the education curriculum contained in the models. In the basic model, the user can use Scratch and C language; in the Arduino model, Sketch, a coding language that Arduino uses is employed; in the Raspberry Pi model, Raspberry Pi Linux can be used for autonomous driving and unmanned car performances.

The company’s second business area is their Saeon Edu franchise. The Saeon Edu education business currently operates 4 branches nationwide in Jongno, Seoul; Byeongjeom, Gyeonggi; Dalseo, Daegu; and Jinju, Gyeonsang. In order to expand their business, the company plans to concentrate their efforts on educational textbooks and online content development.

Their third digital business division is their lighting division, centered on CELLO, the portable emotional lamp. This light helps to improve light therapy, especially for tic disorders and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Another hidden champion in the field of educational robots, Saeon’s innovation is set to shake up the market.