Hyundai Motor Company to commercialize robot-friendly buildings with integrated infrastructure

Hyundai Motor Company aims to commercialize robot-friendly buildings that allow robots to autonomously navigate through real-time communication with elevators. The company expects the mass commercialization of Physical AI, including humanoid robots, to be the biggest change in the robotics field within the next five years.

An era is approaching where robots can independently ride elevators to move between floors in a building to deliver goods. A job introduction for the robotics business division provided by Hyundai Motor Company (HYUNDAI) details the process of designing infrastructure and building business models so that robots can integrate into actual living spaces, moving beyond simple technology development.

The Hyundai Motor Company Robotics Business Division leads the entire commercialization process to ensure that robot technologies and systems developed by the Robotics Lab can settle into the market. The core goal is to increase human convenience and productivity by introducing robot solutions to various spaces, including manufacturing, logistics, offices, and hospitals. To achieve this, the division conducts market reviews and demand analysis for various industries and suggests directions for improvement based on user feedback obtained through field verification.

The core of 'robot-friendly buildings' communicating with elevators

Hyundai Motor Company's robot technology is already being applied and operated in various buildings, such as the Yangjae headquarters of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia, and Storyal Seongsu. Of particular note is the 'robot-friendly building' project, which involves spaces planned from the design stage on the premise of free robot movement and coexistence with humans.

Robot-friendly buildings are organically linked with robot-dedicated elevators. Robots communicate with building infrastructure in real time to check their own status, allowing them to autonomously perform various roles such as delivery, charging, watering plants, and access control. These differ from conventional buildings in that they are intelligent infrastructures designed to allow robots to operate smoothly.

During the project process conducted at Storyal Seongsu, various variables existed. Situations occurred where services were interrupted due to unpredictable external factors, such as building power outages or emergency elevator inspections. In such cases, the operational capability to monitor the site in real time and make swift judgments and responses acted as a key factor in reducing service loss and user inconvenience.

Mass commercialization of Physical AI... changes in the next 5 years

The ability to sensitively grasp market and technology trends is essential for robotics business development. This is because solutions that align with trends must be proposed to gain user trust and preoccupy the market. Additionally, the ability to solve various problems occurring in the field, such as differences in requirements among stakeholders and technical constraints, is cited as an important job competency.

A Hyundai Motor Company official predicted that the biggest change in the robotics field within the next five years will be the "mass commercialization of Physical AI, including humanoid robots." While robots until now have operated only in limited environments, it is analyzed that they will evolve to a level where they can operate autonomously in general fields due to the advancement of AI technology.

This technological evolution is expected to create an environment where humans can focus more on high-value-added tasks by having robots perform dangerous and difficult work instead of humans. This is expected to ultimately lead to improved productivity and enhanced quality across industries.

Source: original video (YouTube)