[Edaily Reporter SHIN MIN JOON ] “Whirring, clanking, whirring, clanking.”
On the 7th, at the Lotte Mart Zeta Smart Center’s refrigerated warehouse in Busan, about 100 artificial intelligence (AI) picking robots, known as “Bots,” moved ceaselessly along a checkerboard-patterned grid of rails. The bots transported baskets containing numerous items ordered by customers to the OGRP (On-Grid Robotic Pick) arms, located at the top of the grid rails.

Despite moving at a very fast speed of 4 meters per second, the approximately 100 bots demonstrated highly precise movements without colliding with one another. The OGRP, equipped with machine learning technology, sorted the items in the baskets brought by the bots by customer.

The OGRP automatically recognized the pickup locations and accurately picked and packed the items. Baskets containing items packed for individual customers passed through a collaborative picking station—where workers and robots work together beneath the grid rails—and were immediately transported to the shipping area. The entire process, from the initial picking of items to their arrival at the shipping area, took only about 30 minutes.

Jeong Jae-woo, Head of Lotte Mart’s Online Business Division, emphasized, “At the Zeta Smart Center Busan, it takes about one hour from the initial picking of items to loading the entire shipment onto delivery trucks,” adding, “This is the fastest among online logistics centers operated by major domestic supermarkets.”

Lotte Mart (LOTTE SHOPPING CO., LTD.(023530), Grocery Division) has fully launched the Zeta Smart Center Busan, a next-generation online-exclusive logistics center that integrates cutting-edge automated logistics technology. The Zeta Smart Center Busan aims to provide 24-hour delivery at the customer’s preferred time to 4 million households in the Busan and Yeongnam regions. With the launch of the Zeta Smart Center Busan, Lotte Mart has also resumed early morning deliveries for the first time in four years since 2022.

At the Zeta Smart Center Busan, AI robots and systems are used to directly pick and pack ordered items. In particular, the Zeta Smart Center Busan has automated key processes—from product picking to △packing △shipping △delivery route optimization—through data- and AI-driven demand forecasting. Existing online-only centers relied on staff to manually load and pack products.

The Zeta Smart Center Busan’s key differentiators include its fresh food sourcing capabilities, a 100% cold chain, and 24-hour delivery service. The center manages a 100% cold chain from receipt to delivery vehicles for a wide range of food products—including Lotte Mart’s fresh foods—using automated “Auto Freezer” facilities that cover ambient, refrigerated, and -25°C frozen zones.

Center Director Jeong Jae-woo said, “Customers can specify delivery times in 2- to 3-hour intervals from dawn to dusk,” adding, “Up to 13 delivery runs per day are possible.”

Zeta Smart Center Busan is the first facility in Korea to implement OSP, Ocado’s integrated solution that centrally manages the entire online grocery shopping process—from customer orders to delivery.

Construction on the Zeta Smart Center Busan began in December 2023. With a total floor area of 40,000 square meters (approximately 12,000 pyeong), it handles up to 35,000 products. The number of products carried is about 1.3 times greater than that of competitors.

The Zeta Smart Center Busan also introduces a differentiated delivery system to ensure on-time deliveries. The 1-metric-ton electric delivery vehicles, developed in collaboration with HyundaiMotor, use an AI-based dispatch algorithm that takes real-time road conditions into account to calculate the optimal route in real time.

Director Jeong Jae-woo stated, “The Zeta Smart Center Busan is a comprehensive hub of cutting-edge distribution technologies—including AI, big data, and machine learning—operating alongside up to 1,000 robots.”