Yujin Robot a Korean-based company, continues to release thoughtful new products. They just announced a meal-transport robot designed to operate in eldercare and other hospitality and healthcare facilities.

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 smartphones, tablets and PCs.

A third partner in the new GoCart venture is the Horst Construction company, a property management and senior care facility builder, insurer and property manager.

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

In 2011 Yujin produced the iRobiQ robot, an English teaching robot for kindergarten classes throughout South Korea.

Thereafter they released a complete line of robotic vacuum cleaners for the Asian market as well as a research mobility device predicated on their Kobuki mobility platform and called Turtle-bots.

UPDATE 09/05/2014: 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.