South Korean Delivery Platform Baemin Discloses Robot Tech Upgrades: AI Simulation Cuts Outdoor Testing Time by 40%

Woowa Brothers, the operator of South Korean food delivery platform Baemin, disclosed technical progress for its delivery robot 'Deli' at the Woowa Tech Conference 2026 held in Seoul on October 28. The company stated that outdoor testing time was reduced by 40% through the use of artificial intelligence for training autonomous driving models and verifying performance in virtual environments.

According to Woowa Brothers, traditional modular autonomous driving systems required separate modifications to perception, planning, and control modules for new scenarios, with each improvement and validation taking 3 to 4 weeks. To address this, the company is transitioning to an 'End-to-End' learning approach, training the entire model directly on driving data to allow performance to improve continuously as data accumulates.

In terms of data collection, the company optimized its strategy to prioritize data from alleys and unexpected situations rather than relying solely on main roads. As a result, the proportion of roads with collected driving data rose from 13.7% to 28.2%, nearly doubling. Woowa Brothers emphasized that the key to improving model performance lies in the novelty and diversity of data, not just the volume.

Additionally, the company built an AI-based simulation verification system. Previously, constructing a 0.085 square kilometer 3D virtual road took 40 hours, whereas the automated system can now generate a 4.4 square kilometer model in 34 minutes. After software updates, the system automatically runs simulation tests in the early morning, with AI initially identifying potential error causes before human judgment. This process reduced the outdoor testing cycle from 5 days to 3 days.