Lotte Hotels & Resorts announced on the 16th that it will become the first in the hotel industry to participate in a government-led humanoid technology development project and will begin building future-oriented hotel services using artificial intelligence (AI) robots. The company plans to apply a commercialized model across all hotel properties by 2030.

Lotte Hotels & Resorts has been selected as the lead institution for a national project under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s “Core Technology Development for the Robot Industry” program, and will promote the development and demonstration of humanoid robots optimized for hotel environments.

In particular, it plans to verify and advance in the field such high-difficulty technologies as five-finger-based manipulation technology for implementing the delicate hand movements required for hotel operations, and autonomous navigation capabilities in complex indoor spaces.

The company will first deploy humanoid robots in tasks that do not involve direct contact with guests, such as room maintenance, amenity transport, and facility management, to accumulate operational data, and then gradually expand the scope to face-to-face service areas such as concierge and check-in.

The first pilot site will be Lotte Hotel Seoul. The company has begun job analysis and proof of concept (PoC) based on an actual hotel environment. It has signed an agreement with “Realworld,” a deep-tech company that develops physical AI and a Robotics Foundation Model (RFM), and is formulating a master plan to introduce humanoids reflecting hotel operation characteristics starting in October. Based on the operational data obtained, Lotte Hotels & Resorts aims to advance its learning models and roll out the commercialized model to all properties by 2030.

A Lotte Hotels & Resorts representative stated, “Winning this national project is meaningful in that it recognizes our competitiveness as a technology partner co-designing the standards for future hotel services,” adding, “We plan to advance the accumulated technology and operational know-how into intellectual property (IP) and expand our business-to-business (B2B) solutions across industries that require high-end guest services, such as hotels, hospitals, and senior living communities.”

Popular News