Hyundai’s manufacturing facility of the longer term employs robotic canines, harvests greens

SINGAPORE – I bear in mind the primary time I noticed a Boston Dynamic Spot robotic on the web. The four-legged yellow robotic seemed not in contrast to a canine and positively jogged my memory of the “Metalhead” episode from Black Mirror.

Once I see one in actual life on the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Middle Singapore (HMGICS), my first thought is to be terrified. My second thought is, “Awww … it’s really form of cute.” My third thought is, “Wait – is that this robotic canine serving to construct a automotive?”

It’s a bot!

The HMGICS is an experimental manufacturing facility positioned within the Jurong Innovation District in Singapore. The seven-story, 86,900- square-meter facility boasts greater than 200 robots performing greater than half of the work, producing the Ioniq 5 for the Singapore market and the Ioniq 5 robotaxi for us right here in the USA. The Ioniq 6 ought to come on-line subsequent 12 months.

Nevertheless, there isn’t a “line” right here like in a conventional manufacturing facility. As an alternative, every little thing is “cell” based mostly and autonomy guidelines the day. On my tour I encounter autonomous pallet robots transporting components and elements to numerous cells. They’re good sufficient to offer my group the appropriate of approach, however it’s nonetheless somewhat unnerving, like I’m strolling in the midst of the road and never in a glowing clear manufacturing facility. Some pallets may even carry {a partially} assembled automotive from one cell to a different, stopping within the actual place for the meeting robots to do their job.

Right here is the place I get distracted and cease listening to my information. As an alternative, I’m watching a robotic arm set up a dashboard into an Ioniq 5. There’s a robo-pallet of bolts to the facet, and the arm exactly picks one up, strikes to the set up location, screws it in and goes again for the following bolt. All of it occurs in about three seconds. I guess this stuff by no means lose their 10-millimeter socket.

Nevertheless, some robots don’t full the complete activity. After the sprint is put in, I watch a robotic seize a passenger seat and place it into the entrance of an Ioniq 5. Then the arm swings off to the facet, drops off its attachment – or hand because the case could also be – and swaps it for a special one. It goes on to drop in a windshield wiper motor. Nevertheless, the precise bolting in is left for people to do.

People and robots, working in concord

Sure, there are some 270 people that work at HMGICS. Some are engineers working in robotics or AI, however many are serving to out within the cells, working with the robots to place automobiles collectively. Every employee in a cell has about 40 duties to do, and I’m fascinated by the wearable seat one gal is carrying as she places collectively a door. This light-weight contraption permits her to sit down wherever she must; pushing round a curler chair not wanted. I want this in my very own storage.

I’m additionally jealous of the good glasses one other employee is carrying. This wearable tech initiatives the directions for a specific activity into his field of regard, minimizing errors and standardizing the workflow. As somebody who continually has to refer from a YouTube video to my mission and again to the video once more, these fancy-pants glasses can be my jam.

Which brings me again to the Spot robotic. A gentleman is working beneath a automotive – he wears a assist for his arm to assist carry it all through the repetitive day – and Spot is hanging out subsequent to him. As soon as the tech finishes a activity, Spot comes over and takes an image. It does this by opening what’s clearly speculated to be its mouth and aiming the embedded digital camera on the part of labor simply completed. Why the digital camera can’t be the rattling factor’s eyes I don’t know, however I’ve gone again to my preliminary impression – Spot is creepy as hell.

It’s form of like rocket science

This Spot-checking picture, and pictures from the good glasses, are despatched to the manufacturing facility’s digital twin. Once I let you know that I feel I walked right into a mini NASA mission management after I enter this meta manufacturing facility, I’m not joking. A bunch of engineers are surrounded by giant screens on three partitions, and everybody has a private display in entrance of them. Of us are leaning into their work, delving into spreadsheets and pc graphics that elevate my nervousness with a mere look.

Scrutinizing pictures from the cells is barely a small a part of what this management room can do. Not solely can engineers see what is occurring in real-time – every little thing from the timing of robo-pallets to any points Tony, the upkeep robotic, sees on the ground – it will probably consider the effectivity of every cell.

The meta manufacturing facility breaks all of it down into availability, efficiency and high quality metrics. It is aware of if every cell has the required components on the proper time and if the tech within the cell is finishing duties on time and accurately. If any of those elements are lacking, the nerds up right here can drill down into the info and discover out why.

The digital twin can even run simulations to plan for future manufacturing objectives. Proper now, the manufacturing facility solely produces 20 automobiles a day, however Hyundai says it has the capability for 30,000 a 12 months. To be able to successfully quadruple its present output, then, the meta manufacturing facility can take a look at all of the logistics and work out what number of robots must be deployed and what occurs if any single factor is modified.

Eat your veggies

There may be extra to the HMGICS than simply robots and a space-age information room. Testing of the Ioniq 5 is finished on the rooftop monitor. Encircling a backyard and surrounded by photo voltaic panels, the Sky Observe is 618 meters lengthy and 28 meters above the bottom. Hyundai says the utmost velocity is 83 kilometers per hour, however my driver pushes it a bit faster and I get somewhat queasy going by means of the banked turns. This isn’t what I anticipated after I agreed to a manufacturing facility tour. 

There are even two hydroponic farms on website. Hyundai says it’s to display that its expertise can allow every little thing from automobiles to meals. Contained in the 5-meter-tall construction within the foyer is a robotic arm that appears similar to what’s constructing the automobiles upstairs. Right here it’s simply harvesting leafy inexperienced veggies. Presently the yield goes to a tasting room or a neighborhood meals financial institution, however the veggies can even be served at an in-house restaurant set to open subsequent 12 months.

Oh, and also you don’t must be an precise Hyundai buyer to benefit from the Sky Observe and veggie tasting room. These components of HMGICS are open to the general public – and free – so long as you could have a reservation. That’s excellent news to the oldsters of Singapore, as autos are taxed at over S$95,000 ($71,000 U.S.), placing automobiles out of attain for a lot of households.

However actually, what’s the level of this fancy-pants manufacturing facility? Hyundai wouldn’t inform me simply how a lot it has spent on the HMGICS, however it needs to be within the tens of billions of {dollars}. For that form of funding, Hyundai is getting nearer to its prospects, albeit these with loads of money within the financial institution for taxes, whereas experimenting with new manufacturing processes. The corporate hopes to duplicate this manufacturing facility in different markets, however there aren’t any laborious and quick plans but. One factor is for positive: that Spot robotic will probably be haunting my desires for weeks to return.

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