Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- For a safe residential life in the era of non-contact, autonomous food delivery robots capable of traveling between floors will be introduced at a new apartment complex built by Hanwha Engineering and Construction. When the delivery service starts in February 2021, it will bring a new culture to South Korea's residential environment.

Hanwha E&C signed a memorandum of understanding on July 2 with Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korea's top food delivery service app Baedal Minjok, which has pushed for the commercialization of delivery service robots as a coronavirus epidemic caused a spike in non-contact orders. South Korea's food delivery market has seen a stellar increase in sales as people tend to stay in their houses and order food.

When a resident orders food through an app, the delivery robot receives food at the common entrance and delivers it to each house using self-driving functions, Hanwha E&C said, adding it would be applied to a new apartment complex in Seoul's Yeongdeungpo district.

The service robot can call the elevator wirelessly, select the floor, and determine the moving line based on pre-set information. Hanwha E&C will eliminate door sills and establish automatic doors so that the delivery robot using a one-pass key can move freely.

"The delivery robot service is designed to dispel concerns among residents about security and transmission in the non-contact era," Hanwha E&C said in a statement, adding it will reduce the psychological burden of contact with strangers and prevents accidents and the transmission of contagious diseases.

Woowa has developed robots for restaurants and self-driving food delivery vehicles. The final goal is to produce robots capable of roaming freely through the crowded urban streets. However, the development of delivery robots has been slow because they are not useful in real life in a country where many city dwellers live in high-rise apartment buildings. The salient challenge is elevators.

Woowa joined hands with Hyundai Elevator, the largest elevator and escalator producer in South Korea, to commercialize a system linking elevators and robots. Dilly Tower, an autonomous service robot capable of traveling between floors, was tested in May at Woowa's head office in Seoul.

Dilly Tower, linked to automatic doors and elevators, moves on its own to customers. It sends text messages so that customers can receive food by entering their mobile phone numbers on the robot's screen. The robot can move 1.2 meters per second, overcome up to 2.2 centimeters of a raised spot and automatically slow down in narrow passages or on uneven roads. The battery lasts six hours and is automatically charged when waiting.