Hyundai Wia to Supply Unmanned Forklifts...Building a 'Logistics Robot' Lineup

Unmanned Forklift Capable of Autonomous Loading and Unloading
100% Pallet Recognition Using Lidar and Vision Sensors

Hyundai Wia is set to supply unmanned forklifts to actual manufacturing sites. The company aims to expand its market influence by broadening the lineup of its mobile robot brand, H-Motion.

On September 7, Hyundai Wia announced that it will supply unmanned forklifts capable of autonomously moving, loading, and unloading goods from cargo trucks and other vehicles. These unmanned forklifts are scheduled to be deployed for the first time at Kia Autoland Hwaseong starting in May next year. Hyundai Wia is the first company in Korea to successfully supply unmanned forklifts capable of completely autonomous loading and unloading. Hyundai Wia’s unmanned forklifts can be viewed on the company’s official YouTube channel.

A driverless forklift from Hyundai Wia autonomously loads and unloads goods from a cargo truck. Hyundai Wia

The primary feature of Hyundai Wia’s unmanned forklift is its ability to move autonomously within factories, load goods onto pallets, and perform both loading and unloading tasks. Hyundai Wia leveraged its mass-production experience with autonomous mobile robots (AMR) to develop this unmanned forklift. By utilizing Lidar sensors, vision sensors, and safety scanners, the forklift can navigate the workspace and transport goods on its own. In addition, by utilizing “digital twin” technology to create simulation factories identical to real ones, Hyundai Wia ensured the unmanned forklifts could generate optimal routes.

Hyundai Wia focused its technological capabilities on the most critical part of the forklift: loading and unloading. First, vision sensors are used to precisely recognize the position of pallets. The movement patterns were calibrated to account for the truck’s condition, the phenomenon of vehicles slightly lowering when loaded, and the movement of pallets depending on the ground condition. The company also adopted the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm to optimize data in real time. This allows for 100% recognition even if palettes are displaced by as much as 250mm from the target position or are misaligned by more than 10 degrees to the left or right. Hyundai Wia also equipped the unmanned forklift with posture correction to accommodate sloped entrances and exits when containers are used.

The unmanned forklift developed by Hyundai Wia can carry goods weighing up to 4 tons, a capacity comparable to that of mid-sized forklifts most commonly used in manufacturing environments. The maximum speed is set at about 6.5 kilometers per hour in line with factory safety standards. To prevent industrial accidents, safety scanners are attached to all four sides of the unmanned forklift, enabling it to stop immediately when encountering obstacles.

Hyundai Wia plans to build a comprehensive mobile robot solution encompassing unmanned forklifts, already-commercialized AMRs, parking robots, and more, and to expand its business globally. A Hyundai Wia representative stated, “Through the supply of unmanned forklifts, we are able to further diversify the lineup of industrial robots used in manufacturing sites,” adding, “We will continue striving to be a company that innovates global manufacturing sites through H-Motion, our industrial mobile robot.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.