SINGAPORE – I keep in mind the primary time I noticed a Boston Dynamic Spot robot on the web. The four-legged yellow robotic regarded not not like a canine and undoubtedly jogged my memory of the “Metalhead” episode from Black Mirror.
After I see one in actual life on the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Heart Singapore (HMGICS), my first thought is to be terrified. My second thought is, “Awww … it’s truly 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 unit 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 yr.
Nevertheless, there is no such thing as a “line” right here like in a standard manufacturing unit. As a substitute, every part is “cell” primarily based and autonomy guidelines the day. On my tour I encounter autonomous pallet robots transporting elements and elements to varied cells. They’re sensible sufficient to offer my group the precise of method, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a bit of unnerving, like I’m strolling in the midst of the road and never in a glowing clear manufacturing unit. Some pallets may even carry {a partially} assembled automotive from one cell to a different, stopping within the precise place for the meeting robots to do their job.
Right here is the place I get distracted and cease listening to my information. As a substitute, 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 subsequent bolt. All of it occurs in about three seconds. I wager these items by no means lose their 10-millimeter socket.
Nevertheless, some robots don’t full your 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 unique 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 vehicles collectively. Every employee in a cell has about 40 duties to do, and I’m fascinated by the wearable seat one gal is sporting 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 sensible glasses one other employee is sporting. This wearable tech initiatives the directions for a selected activity into his field of regard, minimizing errors and standardizing the workflow. As somebody who continuously has to refer from a YouTube video to my undertaking 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 raise 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 presupposed to be its mouth and aiming the embedded digicam on the part of labor simply completed. Why the digicam 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 photograph, and pictures from the sensible glasses, are despatched to the manufacturing unit’s digital twin. After I inform you that I feel I walked right into a mini NASA mission management once I enter this meta manufacturing unit, I’m not joking. A gaggle of engineers are surrounded by massive screens on three partitions, and everybody has a private display screen 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 going on in real-time – every part from the timing of robo-pallets to any points Tony, the upkeep robotic, sees on the ground – it may well consider the effectivity of every cell.
The meta manufacturing unit breaks all of it down into availability, efficiency and high quality metrics. It is aware of if every cell has the required elements on the proper time and if the tech within the cell is finishing duties on time and appropriately. 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 may run simulations to plan for future manufacturing objectives. Proper now, the manufacturing unit solely produces 20 vehicles a day, however Hyundai says it has the capability for 30,000 a yr. With the intention to successfully quadruple its present output, then, the meta manufacturing unit can take a look at all of the logistics and determine what number of robots should be deployed and what occurs if any single factor is modified.
Eat your veggies
There’s extra to the HMGICS than simply robots and a space-age information room. Testing of the Ioniq 5 is finished on the rooftop observe. 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 a bit of queasy going by the banked turns. This isn’t what I anticipated once I agreed to a manufacturing unit tour.
There are even two hydroponic farms on web site. Hyundai says it’s to reveal that its expertise can allow every part from vehicles to meals. Contained in the 5-meter-tall construction within the foyer is a robotic arm that appears similar to what’s constructing the vehicles upstairs. Right here it’s simply harvesting leafy inexperienced veggies. At the moment the yield goes to a tasting room or an area meals financial institution, however the veggies can even be served at an in-house restaurant set to open subsequent yr.
Oh, and also you don’t should be an precise Hyundai buyer to benefit from the Sky Observe and veggie tasting room. These elements 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 vehicles out of attain for a lot of households.
However actually, what’s the level of this fancy-pants manufacturing unit? Hyundai wouldn’t inform me simply how a lot it has spent on the HMGICS, nevertheless it must 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 unit in different markets, however there aren’t any arduous and quick plans but. One factor is for certain: that Spot robotic might be haunting my desires for weeks to return.
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