Hyundai Wia supplies unmanned forklifts to Kia's Autoland, expands H-Motion lineup

Hyundai Wia is moving to supply unmanned forklifts to manufacturing sites, with plans to expand the lineup of its mobile robot brand H-Motion and strengthen its market presence.

The company announced Monday that it will supply unmanned forklifts capable of moving autonomously and loading and unloading cargo from trucks and other vehicles. The machines are set to be deployed for the first time at Kia Autoland Hwaseong starting in May next year. Hyundai Wia said it is the first domestic company to successfully supply a fully unmanned forklift capable of autonomous loading and unloading operations.

The defining feature of Hyundai Wia's unmanned forklift is its ability to navigate a factory floor on its own, load pallets and carry out loading and unloading tasks. The company drew on its experience mass-producing autonomous mobile robots, or AMRs, in developing the machine.

The forklift uses LiDAR sensors, vision sensors and safety scanners to navigate the workplace and transport goods autonomously. Hyundai Wia also applied "digital twin" technology — which creates a simulation factory mirroring the actual facility — to enable the forklift to generate optimal routes.

Hyundai Wia focused its engineering efforts on loading and unloading, the most critical aspect of forklift operation. Vision sensors allow the machine to precisely identify pallet positions. The system also accounts for the condition of the truck, the slight sinking of the vehicle when cargo is loaded onto it, and pallet movement caused by variations in ground conditions.

The forklift also uses an iterative closest point, or ICP, algorithm to optimize data in real time. This enables 100% pallet recognition even when a pallet has shifted up to 250 millimeters from its target position or is tilted more than 10 degrees to either side. For container operations, Hyundai Wia built in posture-correction capability to handle inclines at entry and exit points.

The unmanned forklift can carry a maximum load of 4 tons, comparable to the capacity of mid-size forklifts most commonly used in manufacturing settings. Its top speed is about 6.5 kilometers per hour, calibrated to match factory safety standards. Safety scanners mounted on all four sides detect obstacles and bring the machine to an immediate stop when a hazard is encountered.

"Supplying unmanned forklifts allows us to build a more diverse lineup of industrial robots for manufacturing sites," a Hyundai Wia official said. "We will continue working to become a company that transforms global manufacturing through our H-Motion industrial mobile robots."

Meanwhile, Hyundai Wia recently drew attention at a customer showcase event held at the Hyundai Motor Group's Uiwang research campus in Gyeonggi Province, where it demonstrated how its parking robots work and outlined plans for deploying them in residential complexes.

With regulations that had blocked the installation of parking robots in residential buildings now eased, Hyundai Wia plans to expand its business beyond manufacturing facilities into everyday living spaces, including apartment complexes and public facilities.