"I think a world where humans and robots coexist will come naturally. Our goal is to produce safe robots specialized for service industries. We opened a robot cafe this year to test, and there are still many things to improve."

Roh Seungjun, CEO of Robros, is not a robotics major, but he recognized the potential of service robots early. He joined Alien Robot, a company making coffee robots, and later founded service robot startup Robros in 2020.

"We stopped selling robots and switched to service development."

Robros initially sold robots, delivering units to highway rest stops and CJ Foodville Vips. Noh decided that selling robots alone was not enough to grow the market. Since June last year, the company has stopped robot sales and started building a business model that generates revenue by providing robot services directly.

In January, Robros opened the robot cafe Better Than Yours in Seongsu-dong and has been running various tests. The company focused on drawing people into the store and designing comfortable traffic flow and user experience.

Noh said robots should not be seen only as a way to replace labor costs. He emphasized that while business owners may gain benefits, consumers who use and pay must also feel a fair value.

He said that value can appear in different ways, such as lower prices or a fun experience. Reflecting this focus, Robros has 12 employees, half of whom are developers and four of whom are designers.

"Trying the robot cafe Better Than Yours."

A reporter ordered a drink at Better Than Yours. As soon as the order was placed, two robots started preparing the drink. One extracted the espresso shot while the other prepared ice water. A short time later, the customer scanned a QR code printed on the receipt at the robot's camera to receive the drink.

Several points stood out. First, using two robots in parallel reduced order response time. Most robot cafes assign one service to one robot. Another unique point was a circular layout that placed the kiosk, drink pickup, and napkin station to improve space efficiency. It felt designed for customers in a small takeout store.

The hardware used robot arms from HD Hyundai Robotics. Noh said they use robots appropriate to the situation and are not limited to a single model, but no existing robot is fully suitable for service work.

Noh questioned why service environments rely on manipulators, which take up space and still have speed limits. Robros is developing a new robot concept and plans to reveal part of it within the year.

Last month, the company also raised its first institutional investment, a 1.6 billion won seed round from Stick Ventures, Primer Saje, and GS Retail. The funds will be used for in-house robot development and service store upgrades.

"We will grow the market with safe service robots."

Robros plans to open two additional Better Than Yours stores in Seongsu-dong this year and expand the service robot category beyond the cafe testbed. The company has adopted a motto of building safe robots and continues to research control technology.

Robros has compliance torque control technology that ensures safety even in collisions, reinforcement learning based robot simulation technology, and hand control technology that can grasp and move irregular objects.

CTO Park Hyunjoon said to give robots compliance when external forces are applied, sensors or springs are typically added, which increases cost and computing power needs.

He said Robros control technology aims to make robots move softly using controllers without extra external devices.

Noh sees strong potential in service robots but notes the market is still small. He said safe robot technology is essential to expand the market.

Ultimately, Roh aims to build service robots that are more efficient and safer than humans. He expects that as robot adoption accelerates, the company can eventually target home use as well.

Robros has only just begun. As more service industries adopt robots, he hopes his philosophy will resonate with consumers and become a friendlier solution.