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A father reuniting his young daughter with their family dog thanks to SPOT. The father and daughter both have dark hair, the dog is a Labrador puppy and SPOT is a yellow four-legged robot with lights on top.
Robotics

Mobility for You

6 minute read

Here at Hyundai, we’ve been asking ourselves – how can we build mobility solutions to change how we all move in the future? Last year, we unveiled some of our new mobility solutions which expand our capabilities as human beings at the CES in Las Vegas. Now we’re back to show you why these solutions have the power to change the world as we know it.

A significant leap toward ‘Progress
for Humanity’

As mobility evolves, so does humanity. Our vision is to bring Progress for Humanity, and this involves developing and integrating mobility solutions  into our societies that can push us forward.

Right now, we are striving to provide freedom of movement to everyone by investing in mobility solutions, building close relationships with leading mobility providers, and expanding our reach beyond the automotive industry.

Our new solutions will improve our lives in factories, healthcare facilities, assist those with disabilities, and help us all with everyday tasks like carrying groceries and caring for our children.

A pregnant woman dressed in white walking up a hill with a MobED robot beside her carrying all of her groceries. The MobED robot is a compact robot with an open storage compartment at the top and big wheels.
A yellow SPOT robot walking around in a tunnel underground with its lights turned on.

SPOT

SPOT is our four-legged dancing robot and a valued member of Team Century for the World Cup last year . Not only can SPOT dance like no other robot, but SPOT can also reach places that are difficult for humanity can go.

As one of the most advanced robotic technologies in the world, SPOT was created to make people's lives safer and easier. Thanks to its incredible agility, strength, balance, smart cameras, and all-terrain feet, SPOT can navigate all kinds of landscapes and is expanding our reach further than ever before.

Right now, SPOT robots can be used in the manufacturing, construction, research, mining, energy, and public safety sectors, as well as the entertainment industry. Robots can carry out all kinds of tasks autonomously and they are already changing the way that people work in these environments.

In our daily lives, SPOT could be used to find our lost pets, help us to capture carbon from the atmosphere , and even assist us in places that we can’t currently reach. The possibilities are endless.

An elderly man and an elderly woman in a wheelchair sitting at a dining table in their garden with a mobile restaurant cart parked behind them in their driveway. The chef is talking to them both through the front window of the restaurant cart.

MoT – Mobility of Things

In the world to come, you won’t move your things – they will move around you. This fundamental shift will be powered by our MoT (Mobility of Things) technology which makes inanimate objects like furniture, community centers, machinery, and even train carriages move so that we can re-imagine movement and mobility in a whole new way.

In the MoT eco-systems of the future, mobile units, such as restaurants, hair salons, or even pet grooming services could come to you. Just imagine a restaurant car pulling up into your driveway so that you can enjoy a delicious lunch with a friend in your yard. MoT will make things like this possible for everyone and will give a lot more independence to those with limited mobility.

A close-up of the lit-up strip and PnD wheel at the bottom of the baby’s cot as it wheels across a hardwood floor.
A baby’s cot fitted with a PnD module sitting in the corner of the room with a strip of lights lit up at the bottom.

PnD – Plug & Drive

One crucial component in our MoT concept is our PnD (Plug&Drive) module – an attachable autonomous wheel that can rotate 360 degrees and can make traditionally inanimate things move. The module can provide mobility to everything, from pieces of furniture to entire community spaces, so they can move flexibly around us and our needs.

The PnD module is one piece of technology that will allow us to create MoT (Mobility of Things) eco-systems, which will revolutionize almost every aspect of society.

Just imagine what your office or coworking space could look like if the desks, chairs, and filing cabinets could move by themselves. With the PnD module, companies and employees will be able to reconfigure and use their workspace on demand, and it might even push us to do away with fixed locations entirely.

A father attends to his baby inside a cot that is fitted with a PnD module. The cot has a wooden bassinet at the top, a lit-up strip at the bottom, and is fitted with 4 robotic wheels.

PnD’s driving flexibility will also revolutionize public transportation and make it easier for people with specific and individual needs to move around more easily. In the future, you might have your own PnD-fitted personal mobility module that you can get into at your home. This module would then carry you to a mother shuttle, attach itself, and complete most of its journey before detaching itself and carrying you the last mile to your final destination.

What’s more, the PnD module will change the way we interact with the furniture in our homes. For example, a PnD module could be fitted to your baby’s cot so that when your baby starts crying the cot wheels itself to find you in another room. The module might also help you to reconfigure your home office space from day to day and make your furniture work with you and your family to make your lives easier.

We have developed the MobED platform to overcome the limitations of existing indoor guide and service robots while maximizing its usability in cities by dramatically improving the platform’s overall mobility. — DONG JIN HYUN, VICE PRESIDENT OF HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP ROBOTICS LAB

 

MobED, Mobility Eccentric Droid

Last but not least, our MobED robot is taking service robots further than ever before.

The MobED (Mobile Eccentric Droid) is a small mobility platform fitted with the Drive & Lift (DnL) module. This all-in-one robot is based on an eccentric wheel mechanism which means that it combines the drive, steering, and braking systems into one structure.

The DnL module is a game-changer because when it is mounted on each wheel, the MobED can lift its platform up and down while keeping its body level even when traveling over uneven terrain or low barriers like steps or speed bumps.

The MobED measures 60cm wide by 67cm long by 33cm high, and weighs 50kg, with a battery capacity of 2kWh. So, in the future, you could be using a MobED to carry your groceries from the store to your home, especially if you live up a steep hill. You might also be seeing MobEDs arriving at your home with packages that you have ordered or being used as guides in museums or art galleries. And, if you’re a keen filmmaker, you could be using the MobED to carry your filming equipment and film the subjects of your movies while they’re moving around.

A pregnant woman wearing white holding her baby bump, looking over her shoulder and smiling.
A MobED robot carrying a full load of groceries up a hill alongside a woman dressed in a white skirt.

The journey toward the future of mobility has well and truly begun and our commitment to empowering ‘Mobility for You’ is clearer than ever. Follow Hyundai’s Instagram(@hyundai ) to find out more about how our mobility innovations can power your everyday life. and guide us all toward a more sustainable future.

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