Baedal Minjok Launches Apartment Robot Delivery Service: "Elevator to Front Door"

Robot Delivery from Apartment 1st Floor to Each Unit's Entrance
Utilized by 293 Residents of Yeongdeungpo Mixed-Use Apartment
Reduces Consumer Inconvenience and Increases Rider Earnings
Plans to Expand 'Deli Tower' Service for Residential and Office Spaces

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] A robot delivery service, where a delivery robot receives items from a delivery rider and delivers them from the first floor of an apartment building to each household's front door, has started for the first time in Korea.

Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baedal Minjok, announced on the 12th that they have launched the 'Dilly Tower' service, where autonomous delivery robots navigate inside buildings such as apartments to deliver food and other items to each household. The first service area is the mixed-use apartment complex 'Forena Yeongdeungpo' in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.

Dilly Tower is an autonomous indoor delivery robot that delivers items to each household's front door, moving along a pre-programmed route and capable of riding elevators on its own.

Three Dilly Tower units have been introduced at Forena Yeongdeungpo. The 293 residents of the Forena Yeongdeungpo apartment and officetel will receive items ordered through the Baedal Minjok application via Dilly Tower instead of a delivery rider.

Dilly Tower is stationed on the first floor of the complex, which consists of three buildings, to perform delivery tasks. When a rider brings the ordered items to the building's first floor, Dilly Tower is responsible for delivering them inside the building to each household. The rider places the items into Dilly Tower and inputs the customer's phone number (a privacy number), then the delivery begins.

Dilly Tower can open the main entrance door via wireless communication, call the elevator, and input the floor number, enabling movement between floors. When the robot arrives at the ordered household's front door, it calls the customer and sends a notification message. The customer can receive the items by entering their phone number into the robot. This kind of indoor robot delivery service is the first of its kind in Korea.

The cargo space of Dilly Tower is divided into two compartments, upper and lower, with capacities of 23 liters and 15 liters respectively. It is spacious enough to hold 3 to 4 servings of jokbal (braised pig's trotters). The maximum load capacity is 20 kg.

Indoor robot delivery service is a next-generation delivery method that provides contactless delivery to consumers and significantly reduces delivery time for riders. Until now, consumers had to prepare to receive items according to the rider's arrival time or open the main entrance door via intercom, which was inconvenient. Riders also spent a lot of time delivering from the main entrance of apartment complexes to each household, making it difficult to increase their earnings. The introduction of the Dilly Tower service is expected to save time for both consumers and riders.

Woowa Brothers conducted a pilot service at their headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul, in October 2019 to commercialize Dilly Tower. At that time, they confirmed the potential of robot delivery service by reducing delivery times by 5 to 16 minutes compared to before. In August of the same year, they also operated a Dilly Tower room service pilot for about two months at the hotel 'H AVENUE' in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul.

Woowa Brothers plans to expand the Dilly Tower service to residential and office spaces starting with Forena Yeongdeungpo. They are currently preparing the Dilly Tower service at 'D Tower' in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and are discussing the introduction of Dilly Tower in apartment complexes with multiple construction companies.

Kim Yo-seop, head of the Robot Business Division at Woowa Brothers, said, "We expect to provide residents with a safe and convenient contactless delivery service and offer delivery workers the opportunity to perform more deliveries by reducing delivery time." He added, "We plan to expand the use of delivery robots by introducing indoor delivery robots not only in residential areas such as apartments and officetels but also in office buildings."

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