Robots Deliver Coffee in the Office: "Work Just Got Better"

While working in his office, Mr. A (29) felt his concentration waning and decided to order his favorite pick-me-up, a caffè latte. Instead of getting up to go to a nearby café, he opened an app on his smartphone. After placing the order, a robot approached his desk. Inside its cylindrical robot body was a cup of hot latte made by a barista.

Mr. A works at Yujin Robot, a company specializing in autonomous mobility solutions. The company is making various efforts to create a desirable workplace to attract IT talent.

One notable initiative is their robot café. Employees can order drinks via an in-house app when they need a beverage during work. A barista in the first-floor cafeteria prepares the coffee, and Yujin Robot's autonomous logistics robot, GoCart, delivers it directly to their desks. GoCart can call the elevator and travel between floors autonomously. It can also navigate complex pathways including automatic doors to deliver drinks.

At Yujin Robot's headquarters, the autonomous robot GoCart assists with employee convenience, but it’s much more than just a beverage delivery robot. GoCart is recognized as an advanced autonomous mobile robot (AMR) platform that combines expertise and safety, having achieved the first ISO 13482 safety certification for mobile robots in Korea, a requirement for exports to Europe. GoCart is exported in various configurations to six countries, including the U.S. and several in Europe. In a Slovenian hospital's COVID-19 ward, it transports medical supplies, aiding in contact-free patient care. Recently, it has also entered the European healthcare market, being used as a shuttle robot to transport surgical tools to sterilization facilities.