LG Electronics presented a self-driving AI home hub and unveiled its open software development kit (SDK) at last month’s ROSCon, the Robot Operating System Conference, in Denmark.

The showcase provided the South Korean company with an opportunity to engage with the global developer community, share its technological expertise and explore avenues to expand its open platform ecosystem.

Now in its 13th year, ROSCon brings together Robot Operating System (ROS) developers – both beginners and experts – to share and present their latest technologies, innovations and ideas. LG’s on-site booth highlighted its SDK and API by providing a step-by-step experience of predefined apps using an API tool. The company demonstrated the home hub’s major features and services, including small talk, storytelling and reading sessions using optical character recognition (OCR). In addition, there was a demo session where developers could create apps for the hub using the open SDK.

The SDK package gives developers access to various open APIs and programming tools, allowing them to have more control over the home hub and seamlessly expand its software functionalities through ROS 2 and SDK, which support standard interfaces.

The SDK is available on LG’s developer site (q9.developer.lge.com), which also hosts a community platform for interaction and an application marketplace where developers can download apps created by others.

LG is seeking partnerships with institutions and companies for collaboration based on the SDK. The company is providing engineering samples for joint development projects and is pursuing memorandums of understanding (MoUs). By providing accessible programming tools, LG aims to increase the AI home hub’s potential and expand the ecosystem as an open platform. Parties interested can apply for joint development opportunities.

Baek Seung-min, head of LG’s robotics lab, delivered a presentation focusing on the software’s architecture and SDK performance optimisation techniques for the AI home hub, based on ROS 2. LG also invited ROS developers to join the growing ecosystem by releasing its SDK, fostering an environment that promotes collaborative efforts on product development with customers.

“The introduction of the SDK for the self-driving AI home hub demonstrates our vision of expanding the OS appliance ecosystem with the introduction of downloadable services that permit users to personalise their home appliances,” said Lee Hyang-eun, head of customer experience at LG Electronics (www.lg.com). “This is the latest phase in our mission to expand the OS appliance ecosystem and lead the industry into a new era of smart home appliances.”