The Dilly serving robot ready for real-world use

Dilly, a food-serving robot developed by Baedal Minjok, sits at the ready at Chanjang, a restaurant located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [BAEDAL MINJOK]

Food-serving robots, now mainly found in a few future-themed dining places, are now finding their way into more conventional establishments.

On Monday, Baedal Minjok, which runs Korea’s largest food delivery app, signed a deal with Pulmuone Food & Culture, with the former providing its Dilly serving robot to Chanjang and Meihao restaurants.

The robots will deliver orders to the tables in the dining areas, carrying up to 50 kilograms (110.2 pounds). Resembling a stepladder, Dilly comes with four shelves, which means it can serve four tables per trip.

It can move for 24 hours on a single charge.

The robot uses a 3-D camera and sensors to control its movement and is capable of automatically stopping and avoiding obstacles and people.

Baedal Minjok has run a trial service using the serving robot, but this time marks the first commercial use.

The robot can be seen at “Merry Go Kitchen” in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

Merry Go Kitchen is a prototype “future restaurant” developed by Woowa Brothers, the operator of the Baedal Minjok.

Opened July 23, the restaurant brings together food-related technology Woowa has accumulated, from robot servers to software.

Dilly also has a special Dilly Plate variation, which is specifically designed for serving pizzas.

The Dilly Plate robot started serving at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Mok-dong, western Seoul, last year.

“The serving robots developed by Woowa Brothers are designed to maximize efficiency at restaurants,” said Kim Joseph, head of robot delivery cell at the company.

“[Woowa Brothers] will keep trying to push forward the commercialization of serving robots, helped by the partnership with Pulmuone Food & Culture.”

Baedal Minjok has been active in robotics since last year and is aiming to develop robots that deliver food directly to the homes of customers.

It claims success in testing the operation of outdoor food delivery robots.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]