Hyundai Motor Group recently introduced its ‘Factory Safety Service Robot’ (FSSR), a robot for industrial site safety, and announced its pilot operation at Kia’s plant in South Korea.
The FSSR is based on Boston Dynamics’ quadruped robot, Spot, with applied artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous navigation, teleoperation technologies and computing payload (AI Processing Service Unit) for the robot’s usage in various industrial tasks.
With an integrated thermal camera and 3D LiDAR, the FSSR is able to detect persons around it, monitor high-temperature situations and potential fire hazards and perceive whether a door is open or closed. The robot can be remote-controlled through a secure webpage that provides a livestream of its movements around the plant, enabling office personnel to remotely observe industrial areas. The robot’s AI technology also allows the FSSR to detect dangers and send alarms to managers through the secure webpage.
Based on these functions, the Factory Safety Service Robot provides real-time sharing of photos of on-site situations and an activity log with the control center as well as supports a rapid response in the event of an emergency by sounding an alarm on the control webpage. Managers can switch to manual teleoperation whenever needed to conduct a closer look at important industrial sites. It is also possible to connect multiple Factory Service Safety Robots to the control system to simultaneously check various zones.
The quadruped robot is able to navigate through narrow spaces as well as identify blind areas that are hard to see with the human eye. The FSSR is equipped with diverse technologies suitable for autonomous patrol services within industrial site environments, including task management and deep learning-based vision technology.
The robot will support late-night security patrols and create a safer environment for workers. The organization will go through the robot’s proof of concept and assess its effectiveness as well as its applicability before expanding its patrol areas and reviewing additional deployment to other industrial sites.
