AI Plans the Welding Paths, Robots Do the Hauling: Hyundai and Kia Show 200 'Future Factory' Technologies

The factory now has an AI assistant

Its name is 'Polaris'. It reads and interprets production data, searches manufacturing know-how and even drafts equipment manuals.

At the Oct. 16 media event, asked for the status of this week's trial work in the virtual factory, Polaris put per-process progress up on a monitor and talked it through.

Test it in a virtual plant first

A physical-AI 'virtual factory' being built with Nvidia recreates the shop floor so robots and equipment can be trained in advance. The aim is to cut costly real-world trial runs.

Systems that each plant ran on its own are being merged into one standard manufacturing platform. The concept is called the software-defined factory (SDF).

Drive through the tunnel, get inspected

The 'tunnel-type exterior inspection vision' scans a vehicle's body with 3D simulation as it passes through a tunnel-shaped rig. The carmakers used outside vendors' systems until now; this one is in-house.

A 'robot teaching' technology automatically analyses and sets travel paths for more than 1,700 weld points.

When does it reach the line?

The technologies will be validated at the Singapore innovation centre, then applied to mass production in sequence from as early as next year. The new Ulsan EV plant, starting production this month, is the first stage; the target year is 2032.

"Our goal is an autonomous factory that judges, learns and evolves on its own," said E-FOREST Center head Choi Young-tae, adding that workers should be freed for higher-value work.

Good to know

E-FOREST TECH DAY is an annual exhibition where Hyundai and Kia present technology to industry peers and partner firms, alternating between the Uiwang R&D center and production plants. This seventh edition is at Uiwang and runs Oct. 19-21 at the Uiwang R&D center, with a new-manufacturing-technology contest and partner seminars on physical AI and manufacturing AI.