Majestic 'Robot Food Delivery Worker'

Do You Know the 'Ilgaemi' and 'Dilly Drive' Roaming the City Center?

#Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul ? Recently, during lunchtime, you can see about 10 delivery robots roaming the streets here. These are outdoor autonomous driving robots called ‘Ilgaemi’ created by the robot solution specialist company Robotis. These robots carry lunch meals prepared by 10 different restaurants and move busily like worker ants to the locations of the customers who placed the orders.

#‘Gwanggyo Alley,’ a mixed-use apartment complex in Gwanggyo, Suwon, is the stage for the outdoor autonomous delivery robot ‘Dilly Drive’ operated by Baemin (Baedal Minjok). When customers select and order menus from restaurants and cafes within the complex through the Baemin app, a waiting Dilly Drive robot moves to the restaurant. After the food is loaded into the robot and the start button is pressed, the delivery begins.

The era of robots delivering food outdoors has rapidly approached. It has become increasingly common to see delivery robots moving around in metropolitan city centers. Although currently in the pilot service stage, active development is underway to commercialize the technology.

In Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Robotis' autonomous robot 'Ilgaemi' is delivering lunch.

According to Robotis on the 9th, the outdoor autonomous driving robot pilot service, which started in mid-last month, is smoothly handling about 80 deliveries per day. This service, conducted for office workers around Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu for about a month, integrates Robotis’s ‘Ilgaemi’ robot with Bendis’s corporate mobile meal ticket app ‘Sikgwon Daejang.’ Currently, more than 10 robots are simultaneously deployed and operating. Ten businesses participate in the service, including restaurants delivering lunch meals, snack bars, coffee shops, and bakeries.

When customers order and pay for food through the app, the control center sends a delivery robot to the restaurant, which loads the food and delivers it to the first floor where the customer is located. Delivery process information such as the robot’s location, operation status, and food arrival notifications can be received through the app, and opening and closing the robot to retrieve the food is also possible via the app. A Robotis representative explained, "There are no delivery fees, and the variety of menu options has increased, resulting in high satisfaction for both restaurants and users."

In Gwanggyo, Baemin's autonomous robot 'Dilly Drive' is delivering food.

At the mixed-use apartment complex ‘Gwanggyo Alley’ in Suwon, Baemin has been conducting a pilot service using the outdoor autonomous delivery robot ‘Dilly Drive’ since August last year. Initially, delivery operations started with a total of five robots, but as orders increased, eight robots are now in operation. Dilly Drive waits at designated waiting areas within the complex and, upon receiving an order, delivers between the restaurant and the first floors of each apartment building or designated outdoor tables in the plaza. Baemin expects that Dilly Drive will enable ultra-short-distance deliveries that were previously avoided due to delivery cost burdens, becoming a new source of revenue for restaurant and cafe owners.

Currently, delivery robots can autonomously navigate only up to the front of buildings or the first floor of apartments. The goal of each company is for robots to enter indoors, take elevators, move between floors, and find the customer’s location. Baemin is accelerating development with plans to deploy next-generation delivery robots equipped with integrated indoor and outdoor autonomous driving technology in the first half of this year. Robotis is also developing and testing robot technology for indoor movement. Jang Su-young, director at Robotis, said, "Ultimately, the final goal is to enable one robot to operate seamlessly from outdoors to indoors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.