Hyundai Elevator joins forces with Kakao Mobility for integration services

South Korea's Hyundai Elevator Co. said on Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kakao Mobility Corp. to commercialize elevator-robot integration services.

The agreement was formalized at Kakao Mobility's headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the previous day. Attendees included Cho Jae-cheon, CEO of Hyundai Elevator, and Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, along with other representatives from both companies.

Through this partnership, the two companies plan to collaborate on developing standards for integrating elevators and robots, which can be universally applied to various buildings.

They will establish a "Technology Enhancement Advisory Group" to lay the groundwork for market leadership and pursue strategic collaboration in areas such as vertical logistics within buildings and service sales and promotion.

Hyundai Elevator explained that the core of the elevator-robot integration is its advanced elevator maintenance service "MIRI," launched in June of the previous year. MIRI utilizes the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud technology to enable integration with delivery robots and facilitate remote inspections and fault handling.

The number of domestic sites using this service has exceeded 33,000 within a year, and Hyundai Elevator projects that this will reach about 45,000 by the end of the year.

Write to Joo-Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com