Gaemi: a Korean robot that went from apartment drinks to park recycling

A delivery robot from a company that sold robot joints

Gaemi is an autonomous service robot made by ROBOTIS. ROBOTIS is a Seoul robotics company founded in 1999 that has developed actuators since the early 2000s. It began developing commercial autonomous robots in 2018 and, in 2019, was the first company chosen for a regulatory exemption under Korea’s Road Traffic Act, running a pilot in Magok. Gaemi comes in indoor and outdoor versions. The outdoor model measures 733×549×729 mm, weighs 66–70 kg and runs up to six hours at a time. The third-generation indoor model, unveiled in June 2023, stands 1,150 mm tall and weighs 75 kg. CEO Kim Byung-soo called Gaemi a homegrown robot built on Korean technology in both software and hardware.

From apartments to parks, then a forecast of falling sales

On 25 May 2023 Gaemi began regular drink delivery at Godeok Central IPark in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. Residents order through an app or kiosk, and the robot brings drinks to the complex’s tea house. In June 2023 the indoor model was in use at hotels in Korea and Japan. ROBOTIS received the outdoor mobile robot operation safety certification on 31 January 2024. In October that year 12 Gaemi robots went into three parks in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, collecting recycling and patrolling. In February 2025 LG Electronics ordered about 40 of ROBOTIS’s outdoor “Ilgaemi” robots, priced at 25–30 million won each depending on options. In May 2025, however, SK Securities judged that Gaemi sales had fallen short of forecasts, and noted that 98.5% of 2024 revenue came from its Dynamixel actuators.

Easier to recycle without even calling it

At Omok Park in Yangcheon-gu, visitors scan a QR code to call Gaemi, and the robot arrives carrying a recycling bin. When no one calls, it patrols a set route every 20 minutes by day and every hour at night, sending video of incidents such as fire or theft to a control centre. One visitor said that because the robot roams the park all the time, recycling had become easy even without calling it. Another said blind spots for safety seemed to have shrunk. Emptying the bins is left to on-site workers.

A delivery robot found work beyond delivery

Gaemi started as a delivery robot, but in the parks it took on recycling collection and patrols as well. Neubility’s Neubie, certified on the same day, kept widening its operations; for Gaemi a forecast of falling sales came in 2025, and this research found no operating news after that. Most of the company’s revenue still comes from robot joint parts, which is worth reading alongside.

Is the job this robot ended up doing in the field the job it was designed for?

What we haven’t confirmed

• The total number of Gaemi robots sold or operated
• Whether Gaemi still runs at apartments and parks in 2026
• Whether the in-park product delivery planned for Q1 2025 in Yangcheon-gu actually started
• The year the Gaemi name was first made public