Hyundai Motor Group Boston Dynamics’ four-legged walking robot ‘Spot‘ is checking the condition of the factory’s equipment. Photo Hyundai Motor Group” data-type=”article”/>
Hyundai Motor Group Boston Dynamics’ four-legged walking robot ‘Spot’ is checking the condition of the factory’s equipment. Photo Hyundai Motor Group
The robot dog ‘SPOT’ looks around the factory with its square eyes. I take long strides to the instrument panel installed on the machine and put my nose and mouth in. Pressure gauge status ‘normal’, facility temperature 20 degrees ‘normal’. Spot, who was continuing to inspect the factory, stopped in front of the fallen person. A rescue request signal was sent to the control room to notify the emergency situation.
This is the ‘Spot Industry Wide Solution’ technology unveiled by Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors on the 21st. On this day, Seok-hoon Oh, manager of the robot application solution support team at the Advanced Life Center, who met at the Hyundai Motor Group Uiwang Research Center in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, said, “The robot dog avoids obstacles throughout the factory and inspects the dashboard and equipment for any abnormalities,” adding, “Especially during dangerous processes or at night when there are few people. “By investing spot time, safety accidents can be prevented,” he explained.
Spot is a four-legged walking robot created by Boston Dynamics, the robot developer of Hyundai Motor Group. Data can be collected using sensors in the eyes, nose, and mouth, and analysis such as artificial intelligence (AI), vision processing, and big data can be performed based on this. It is highly usable in industrial settings as it can be used for factory control work, quality inspection in automobile manufacturing plants, unmanned harvesting in the agricultural field, and security and security work.
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia will hold ‘E-Forest Tech Day’, a new technology exhibition to share innovative smart factory manufacturing technologies, including Spot, with executives and employees and partners, for three days starting on the 22nd at the Uiwang Research Institute. The theme of this exhibition, which marks its 5th anniversary this year, is ‘Software Defined Factory (SDF)’, with over 200 types of new manufacturing technologies displayed in four theme halls including SDF, Urban Air Mobility (AAM), Robotics, and Startup. is introduced. On this day, the day before the start of the exhibition, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors pre-released some of the exhibition contents to the media.
A 1:3 scale model of Hyundai Motor Group’s next-generation AAM aircraft ‘S-A2’ on display at the ‘E-Forest Tech Day’ event. Photo Hyundai Motor Group
SDF is a smart factory that improves productivity, flexibility, and quality by quickly updating factory equipment functions, performance, and manufacturing intelligence with software (SW). If future software-based vehicle (SDV) vehicle production begins in earnest, it has the advantage of being able to provide products that reflect customer requirements faster than anyone else.
How will the future factory where SDF is realized change? First, as manufacturing intelligence becomes more sophisticated and flexibility is secured, factories can be operated based on data and software. The company explains that the production preparation period can be dramatically reduced, and production speeds can be improved, investment costs can be reduced when new vehicles are introduced, and quality can be improved.
The quality of vehicle panels is automatically inspected in real time using artificial intelligence (AI) video analysis technology. Photo Hyundai Motor Group
The ‘UAM fuselage and wing automatic alignment system’ automatically aligns and assembles the heavy UAM fuselage and wings in 1㎛ (micrometer) units. Photo Hyundai Motor Group
On one side of the exhibition hall, a robot arm was filming while shining a cooking light on the car door. It appears that AI is used to inspect the exterior of a finished car for dents and scratches. A Hyundai Motor Company official said, “If the exterior of the finished car is different from the reference image, the robot will indicate the defect and notify you. “It also informs us when parts specifications are different,” he said. “We are trying to improve inspection quality from the manufacturing process through customized solutions for each vehicle type and factory by internalizing software (SW).”
In the factories of the future, technology that allows robots to perform processes that are dangerous, repetitive, or difficult for humans to perform is often used. ‘Atypical parts assembly automation technology’ that automatically calculates the picking points of parts such as hoses and wires using an AI vision algorithm. When assembling urban air mobility (UAM), the heavy UAM fuselage and wings are cut to 1㎛ (micrometer, 1㎛ = A representative example is the ‘UAM fuselage and wing automatic alignment system’, which automatically aligns and assembles in units of 0.001 mm).
Lee Dong-ho, manager in charge of A-MIO, Hyundai Motor Group’s Electrical Engineering Center, said, “When assembling the UAM fuselage and wings, 10 holes of 0.75 mm in size must be matched at the same time, and the pinhole tolerance is 25 ㎛, which is only a quarter of the thickness of A4 paper. “It is very difficult,” he explained. “By developing a technology to precisely fasten the heavy UAM fuselage and wings by automatically aligning them at 1㎛ intervals, we can shorten the work time that previously took 3 to 5 days to just a few hours.”
Lee Jae-min, head of Hyundai Motor Group’s E-Forest Center (executive director), is explaining the concept of a software-centered factory (SDF). Photo Hyundai Motor Group
Hyundai Motor Group plans to further expand the use of new technologies at its production plants. Lee Jae-min, head of the E-Forest Center (Managing Director) of Hyundai Motor Group’s Manufacturing Solutions Division, said, “For example, currently, when adjusting the step (distance between the door and the car body) when installing a car door, we rely on the know-how of human workers.” He added, “We collect related data and use AI. “By analyzing and judging and adjusting the gap, inefficiencies in the process can be resolved,” he said.
He emphasized that as the automobile manufacturing process is evolving through AI data learning, it will serve as a stepping stone for growth. Center Director Lee said, “Our goal is to reduce more than one-third of manufacturing costs with SDF technology,” adding, “We will apply the new technologies introduced at this exhibition as much as possible to the Ulsan electric vehicle (EV) factory currently under construction and expand to new factories in the future.” “It’s a plan,” he said.
Uiwang = Reporter Ko Seok-hyun [email protected]
