BGF Retail, Hyundai Motor, and Others Sign Business Agreement... "Pilot Project for Robot Delivery Promotion"

CU, Used as Robot Charging and Storage Location

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] BGF Retail announced on the 25th that it has signed a business agreement for a pilot project of robot delivery with Hyundai Motor Company's in-house startup ‘MOBINN’ and NICE Information & Telecommunication.

Through this business agreement, the participating companies will form a last-mile business council and start a convenience store robot delivery pilot project from next month by leveraging each company's capabilities. BGF Retail will provide offline stores as a testbed to verify the commercialization of robot delivery and also consider plans to use stores as hubs for robot charging and storage. NICE Information & Telecommunication, the number one company in the payment infrastructure market, will mediate between the delivery platform and MOBINN servers and take on the role of advancing this system.

MOBINN will verify the feasibility and scalability of delivery services through the robot. MOBINN has been recognized for its technological capabilities by developing an obstacle-overcoming autonomous driving robot. Unlike existing delivery robots, the obstacle-overcoming autonomous driving robot can freely move through high stairs and steep sidewalks in urban apartment complexes, and it can keep the cargo box level at all times when moving on slopes or obstacles, making it suitable for delivering food such as lunch boxes and freshly brewed coffee. Additionally, by utilizing automatic cargo transfer technology, the robot can safely deliver contents to the door autonomously without human presence.

The robot delivery is planned to be conducted targeting employee apartments near Hyundai Motor Company's Namyang Research Center located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, with delivery preparations handled by the nearby CU Namyang City store. Through this, the three companies will verify the indoor and outdoor driving performance and obstacle-overcoming ability of the delivery robot from the starting point to the destination, and later plan to review the commercialization of convenience store robot delivery by linking it with delivery orders on the membership application PocketCU.

A BGF Retail official said, “Through this business agreement, we expect last-mile robot delivery to become a new direction for consumers using delivery services and the future mobility industry,” adding, “We will continue to collaborate with retail tech specialized companies to offer differentiated services.”