Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- The operator of South Korea's top food delivery service app "Baedal Minjok" revealed plans to pump up its serving robot rental service for restaurants by increasing the number of smart robot waiters to 300 by the end of this year.

"We plan to deploy 300 automated serving robots in 200 restaurants across the country by the end of this year," Woowa Brothers said in a statement on Tuesday. The company has launched a serving robot rental service for restaurants in November last year. The service uses "Dilly" robots that autonomously carry food to tables and return empty dishes to help human workers.

Dilly can carry food for four tables that weigh a maximum of 50 kilograms (110 pounds). It is able to navigate automatically and move around obstacles. Currently, there are 18 Dilly serving robots in operation at 12 restaurants.

In an effort to popularize its robot service, Woowa tested a six-wheeled version of Dilly in November last year inside a university campus in eastern Seoul. When students make orders using a delivery app, Dilly robots pick up food from nearby restaurants and deliver them to designated pickup spots.
  During its 25-day test run at Konkuk University, Dilly robots made a total of 2,219 delivery runs and received positive feedback from users as well as researchers.

Woowa and Yogiyo, the country's second-largest delivery service, joined hands in December last year through the acquisition of shares to make an overseas foray into Southeast Asian countries. Delivery Hero, a Berlin-based online food delivery service that runs Yogiyo, agreed to acquire an 87 percent stake held by foreign and domestic investors in Woowa. The two companies agreed to set up an equally owned joint venture in Singapore.

In South Korea's food delivery service market, workers mainly use motorcycles for food delivery. While many restaurants operate their own delivery workers, major online delivery services link their businesses with delivery agencies to offer services.