Woowa Brothers, operator of Baemin, said it will deploy a new model of its delivery robot Dilly (Dilly X3-R 1.4) from Aug. 3 at Baemin Bmart robot delivery sites.

The key change is replacing the exterior material from plastic to recyclable expanded polypropylene (EPP). EPP is light and resistant to heat and impact, increasing durability. The weight fell by about 8 percent from the previous model, while top speed and driving range increased. Under safety certification standards for outdoor mobile robots under the Intelligent Robots Act, the previous model exceeded 100 kg and its speed was limited to 10 km/h, but the new model is 100 kg or less and can reach up to 15 km/h. Baemin obtained operating safety certification for the new model from the Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement (KIRIA) in July.

The EPP material also has heat-retention and cooling performance, opening the possibility of expanding beyond current product deliveries to food delivery. The company added and reinforced the CPU, camera and sensors to improve recognition capability and processing speed, and added a rear camera to improve vehicle recognition.

Baemin has been running a pilot robot delivery service since February last year with the Bmart Gangnam Nonhyeon store as a base. If consumers choose robot delivery when using Bmart and meet the minimum order amount, it delivers to the first floor of a building. More than 99 percent of total travel distance is autonomous driving, and it maintained an average delivery time of around 25 minutes even during the monsoon season in July. As of June, the number of orders rose 40 percent from a month earlier, and was up 240 percent from the same period last year, when the pilot began.

Woowa Brothers currently delivers orders within 2 km and plans to expand the service area to other Bmart stores in the second half of the year. Kim Byung-oh (김병오), head of Woowa Brothers' Robotics Lab, said, "By changing the exterior material, we were able to consider the environment while also improving performance overall." He added, "In the second half, we will work to upgrade autonomous driving technology and control capabilities so that consumers can encounter Baemin's delivery robot Dilly in a wider range of places."