Hyundai Adds Advanced Robotics to Mobility Equation

Hyundai Motor presents advanced robotics mobility solutions Tuesday at CES 2022, saying the technologies go “beyond the traditional means of transportation to fulfill unlimited freedom of movement for humankind.”

The Korean manufacturer says its recent acquisition of Boston Dynamics allows it to focus on improving people’s lives through applying robotics to a range of mobility solutions.

Hyundai says it considers robotics and mobility a synergistic combination that will add value to the business and foster progress for humanity within a robotics-based Mobility of Things (MoT) ecosystem.

Hyundai Motor’s Metamobility concept is grounded in its future vision for robotics, mobility and the metaverse – the latter currently defined as software and hardware that allow users to play or work in virtual 3D spaces.

But the company’s redefinition of metamobility means the connection between virtual experience and reality, made possible by smart devices, will give users unlimited freedom of movement between the two worlds.

Metamobility pioneers a smart device-metaverse connection that will expand the role of mobility to virtual reality (VR) and ultimately allow people to overcome the physical limitations of movement in time and space and provide a means for connecting and interacting in the metaverse.

The company’s Expanding Human Reach concept also envisions that the distinctions between future mobility modes will be blurred through the further development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.

Automobiles and Urban Air Moblity (UAM) will serve as smart devices for access to the metaverse platform, Hyundai says. The company expects robotics will act as a medium to connect the virtual and real worlds.

Hyundai CES22 MoT ecosystem

Unlike VR in its current form, where user experiences are not reflected in the real world due to technological limitations, future metaverse users will be able to affect changes in the real world through robotics and digital twin technology – a virtual representation of a physical object, place or process that will be made possible by further advancements in sensors and actuators.

“The idea behind Metamobility is that space, time and distance will all become irrelevant,” Chang Song, Hyundai Motor Group president and head of Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS) Div., says in a news release. “By connecting robots to the metaverse, we will be able to move freely between both the real world and virtual reality.”

Hyundai also reveals its Plug & Drive (PnD) and Drive & Lift (DnL) modular platforms as part of its Mobility of Things ecosystem, wherein traditionally inanimate things, from small objects to community spaces, will gain mobility using the company’s robotics technologies.

Dong Jin Hyun, vice president and head of Hyundai Motor Group Robotics Lab, highlights the new PnD module, a single-wheel robotics platform that combines intelligent steering, braking, in-wheel electric drive and suspension hardware that can be scaled up or down, for any purpose, size or application. Lidar and camera sensors allow a PnD-enabled object (pictured, below) to move autonomously.

PnD could provide freedom of movement for people with disabilities, automated logistics, reconfigurable interior space and public transportation with individual compartments for social distancing and last-mile mobility, Hyundai Motor says.

The company also exhibits its MobED (Mobile Eccentric Droid) small mobility platform that uses the DnL module and an eccentric wheel mechanism, combining drive, steering and braking systems in one structure.

Hyundai CES22 PnD Module