Korean Yujin robot launches meal transport robot

Korean-based Yujin Robot just announced a meal-transport robot designed to operate in elder care and other hospitality and health care facilities.

By Frank Tobe, The Robot Report September 16, 2014

Yujin’s new GoCart robot is a joint venture between Yujin and ScanBox, a designer and manufacturer of food transport systems for hospitality and institutional facilities around the world. GoCart maps its environment and uses an array of sensors and cameras to autonomously carry its cargo without interfering with people or other objects along its path. It also has an Internet-of-Things interface so that it can connect with existing IT systems and works with smart phones, tablets and PCs.

Field tests of the new GoCart will begin this October in two locations: the U.S. and Sweden.

In 2011 Yujin produced the iRobiQ robot, an English teaching robot for kindergarten classes throughout South Korea. Thereafter the company released a complete line of robotic vacuum cleaners for the Asian market as well as a research mobility device called Turtle-bots predicated on its Kobuki mobility platform.

UPDATE: In a story unrelated to the Yujin Robot GoCart launch, a hospital in England recently deployed 12 AGVs to deliver meals to its 950 patients. The droids open doors, operate lifts and pick up food trays without any human assistance. They transfer chilled dishes to kitchens scattered around the hospital, where they are heated and then served to patients. The AGVs are also used to transport waste, linen, supplies, instruments, and pharmacy items around the facility. Consequently one can see that there is a ready market waiting to be serviced.

– Frank Tobe, The Robot Report; edited for CFE Media under partnership agreement.