According to the 2021 Korean Pet Report published by KB Management and Economic Research Institute, as of the end of 2020, the number of companion households in Korea was 6.04 million and the companion population was approximately 14.5 million. However, despite the significant increase in the companion animal population, products and services that efficiently care for companion animals are lacking. As the number of companion animals increases, the resulting side effects are also increasing.

Many people complained of pain due to dogs barking incessantly in their apartments, and there were even cases where they harmed other people's dogs because they could not bear it. Diropet is a company that develops self-driving pet robots that can solve these problems. We are continuously developing products and services that solve the biggest problem, noise, and further provide care for pets left alone at home. We met with Kim Hak-don, CEO of Diropet, who is doing his best to create a happy pet culture.

What kind of company is Diropet

Diropet is a company that develops pet robots that provide care and behavior correction services to pets left alone at home instead of busy pets. Pet Banjang, developed by our company, is a smart care robot that applies autonomous driving-based IoT artificial intelligence technology. Stress relief, separation anxiety relief, health care, nose work play, etc. were applied to the robot so that dogs can be easily accessed and cared for.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of households raising pets has increased significantly due to the increase in one- and two-person households, low birth rate, and aging population. Accordingly, Diropet is a companion animal industry with the goal of 'Always with you' (always with you, even when the owner is not at home) to reduce social conflicts for pets left alone and to enable busy pet owners to care for them without difficulty. is in progress.

Pet Captain was selected as a promising product support project by the Korea Robot Industry Promotion Agency and was recognized for the excellence of the product. It won the Innovation Award in the embedded field at the 2022 Robo World and the Innovation Technology Award in the field of companion animals at Sports Donga in 2023. Awarded. We have registered two related patents that apply technology to track the location of sound sources, and are developing our business with investment based on this technology and marketability.

What is your main business and differentiation

As the pet population increases and dog noise becomes a social problem, some people try to train their pets or make them stop barking using unethical methods such as bark stoppers and sprays that deliver electric shocks. These physical methods cause stress or pain to dogs. I thought this was such a wrong method that I wondered if there was another way. Then, I realized that barking can be alleviated by giving treats or recognizing movement, so I started developing a pet robot to alleviate barking as a distraction technique among animal behavior modification methods. Development began three years ago, and after two years of field testing, Pet Captain was released in July 2023.

Pet Captain is a pet noise prevention care smart robot developed for the purpose of alleviating and preventing dog barking, which is a social conflict issue. A concentration-dispersion technique was applied rather than a physical method that has a negative effect on dogs.

Without any additional operation, the pet team leader analyzes the dog's barking sound, tracks its location, and drives autonomously to alleviate and correct the barking. Pet Captain's bark mitigation mode responds to sounds above 1,300 Hz, which humans perceive as loud. It detects sound by detecting temperature and drives autonomously, discharging snacks, firing a vibrating laser, and dispersing attention by outputting a sound source.Reduces and stops barking. The play mode is linked to a smartphone to enable nose work play such as manual operation mode and snack dispensing. In the reservation mode, which can be used by pet owners for work, travel, etc., a care robot function helps children left alone to become friends with the pet class leader. will be in charge of. The feature is that up to 7 reservations can be made and settings can be easily made through the app. To improve consumer convenience, various setting options can be controlled through the app, and 10 favorite sound effects are included to allow selection.

It also has a built-in high-capacity battery, so it can be used for about 40 hours on a single charge, and can be used for 4 to 5 days on average. It is also equipped with a 3-hour fast charging function, reducing the inconvenience of frequent charging for pet owners and increasing convenience. In addition, it was developed to optimize speed during autonomous driving to protect the joints of young or older pets.

What are your future goals

Pet Captain received a good response from online funding and the pet industry fair MEGAZOO. Accordingly, we plan to focus on marketing and sales starting from the first half of this year. We plan to hold meetings with overseas platforms and export mainly to countries that raise a lot of companion animals, such as Japan and the United States. We are preparing related certifications and packages in earnest.

In the future, Diropet will continue to do its best to develop robots that allow pet owners to coexist with and care for their pets. We are focusing on development with the goal of launching a pet clean smart care robot that can comfortably manage the indoor environment in 2025. We plan to gradually expand our lineup and continue to introduce innovative products that provide healthy care for owners and pets. In order to establish a happy pet culture, Diro Pet will work harder to improve the quality of products and services.

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