On the 16th, at Hyundai Motor Group’s Uiwang Research Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, during the “E-Forest Tech Day” event. Inside the research center, robotic arms and unmanned transport robots, usually seen only in production plants, were busily in motion. One robotic arm, equipped with a hand featuring five fingers, was slowly removing a thick steel wire securing the vehicle’s underbody shock absorber (suspension). The company expressed expectations that “once it is introduced to the mass-production line around 2028, it will be able to reduce repetitive tasks performed by humans.”

“E-Forest Tech Day” is an in-house exhibition where Hyundai Motor Group develops, showcases, and demonstrates its proprietary technologies to convert its production system into a Software-Defined Factory (SDF). In addition to the “robotic arm with a hand,” the event introduced a “welding robot” capable of automatically welding 1,700 points per vehicle body with a margin of error under 1 mm, and robots that automatically mount components such as the lower door protector (door garnish) and “weatherstrips,” rubber parts used to seal the gap between the door and the body. These technologies enable machines to attach parts that previously required workers to bend significantly at the waist or apply a consistent amount of force during installation.

Hyundai Motor Group is also preparing to use “Polaris,” its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) system based on a large language model (LLM), to monitor the entire production process and even identify directions for improvement. During a demonstration at the event, when a presenter said to Polaris, “Tell me the number of defects in ‘chadoe’ yesterday and directions for improvement,” Polaris responded, “I will analyze defect counts in body, paint, and assembly and propose directions for improvement,” and displayed the results on the screen in less than a minute. It is capable of understanding on-site abbreviations such as “chadoe.”

Hyundai Motor Group is continuously expanding the scope of its autonomous factory operations by applying SDF more broadly at facilities such as the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS), established in 2023; the Metaplant America in Georgia, United States (HMGMA), established in 2024; and the new Ulsan electric vehicle (EV) plant scheduled for completion at the end of this year. Choi Young-tae, Executive Director and Head of the E-Forest Center at the Manufacturing Solutions Division, stated, “The goal is not merely to increase the level of automation, but to transform factories into environments where robots learn based on data and optimize processes, while people can focus on creating added value.”

Popular News