Woowa Brothers Corp., a leading South Korean delivery app operator, announced that it had deployed a last-mile indoor robot providing food delivery services. During the pandemic, people have increasingly preferred non-face-to-face deliveries over traditional services.
Promoting Autonomous Services
As a result, the app developer and operator introduced the new robot to address the ever-growing contactless service customer needs. In particular, Woowa Brothers launched Dilly Tower, a delivery robot that transports customers’ food orders from an apartment complex’s entrance to their households’ front doors.
Moreover, the newly launched service enables the robots to come and go between residential complexes’ ground floors to customers’ homes. The Dilly Tower robots also operate without human assistance, offering some of the first autonomous services in the country.
Woowa, the owner of South Korea’s top restaurant delivery app Baedal Minjok, widely known as Baemin, would initially introduce the new service to western Seoul’s Forena Yeongdeungpo Apartment Complex. Additionally, the commercial-residential establishment contains three buildings with almost 300 households.
Dilly Tower
After Baemin delivery riders secure customers’ ordered food, they would take the goods to the apartment buildings’ entrance. Next, Dilly Tower would place the food in its shelf compartments and prepare to head to its destination.
The Dilly Tower robot could also establish wireless communication with elevators, enabling them to select the designated areas. Once the food delivery robot arrives at the destination, it sends notifications to customers through an app.
Furthermore, upon entering the order number, Dilly Tower’s food compartments would open, giving customers their deliveries and finishing the transaction. In addition to its 1.2-meter per second speed, Dilly Tower could carry loads up to 20 kilograms.
Deploying Self-Driving Robots
“We expect to provide safe and convenient non-face-to-face delivery services to residents and offer delivery workers opportunities to deliver more deliveries by reducing delivery times,” said Kim Yo-Seop, Head of the Woowa Brothers Robot Business Unit.
The company official also shared that Woowa Brothers aim to expand the delivery robots’ usage. To this end, the food app and advertising platform operator would introduce them to more settings, including office buildings.
Previously in 2020, Woowa Brothers introduced the Dilly Drive, its outdoor delivery robot, to another commercial-residential establishment. Besides enabling customers to place and receive orders seamlessly, the robot system utilizes numerous safety measures, ensuring safe operations.
In the same vein, Woowa Brothers teamed up with Hyundai Motor and Kia to develop automated delivery robots in March. Under their MOU, the partners would conduct mobility robot R&D and build an integrated delivery robot system across urban areas.
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