Korea’s top delivery app operator Woowa launches food delivery robot

The self-driving robot Dilly Tower of Woowa Brothers Corp., the operator of Korea’s top food delivery app Baedal Minjok, commonly known as Baemin, will tour the massive shopping and convention venue Starfield COEX Mall and its 55-story Trade Tower in Seoul's Samseong-dong neighborhood.

Woowa Brothers on Monday said Baedal Minjok late last month launched robot delivery service at the mall and tower, which houses an estimated 3,600 office workers at two underground floors and 55 above ground.

An order can be made in the "robot delivery" section of the app. Turning the app on at the World Trade Center causes a robot delivery category to pop up. Select the desired store and menu and enter the office floor and number for the robot to deliver the food. Six stores specializing in simple cuisine and beverages like coffee, desserts and sandwiches are running a trial service for the robots.

A user via the messaging app KakaoTalk can check the status of a delivery including whether an order left and the estimated time of arrival. Real-time location of the robot is also available on the COEX Mall map.

An indoor delivery robot with self-driving technology, Dilly Tower is connected to the entrance gate and elevator and can move freely in a large and complex building without human assistance. Woowa Brothers has streamlined its robot delivery at venues like apartments and hotels using Dilly Tower.

The company next year will expand its delivery service by both indoor and outdoor robots to Teheran-ro Street of Seoul's posh Gangnam district.

Write to Jong-Kwan Park at pjk@hankyung.com