HD Hyundai presented future technologies at CES 2024 in Las Vegas

14.02.2024

HD Hyundai say their Future Builder vision stole the show at the recent CES 2024 technology event in Las Vegas. The concept aims to improve construction industry safety, boost equipment productivity, and ensure long-lasting low-carbon sustainability.

Under the Xite Transformation banner (pronounced ‘site’), the South Korean shipbuilding and heavy industry giant took the world’s largest technology event by storm, demonstrating a range of autonomous machinery, zero-carbon power systems, and connected site management. HD Hyundai’s vice-chairman and chief executive officer, Kisun Chung, provided one of the event’s main keynote speeches, introducing the Xite Transformation concept and announcing a series of forward-looking global collaborations with leading technology partners, including Google and Gravis Robotics.

HD Hyundai claim to lead the construction machinery market with their Advanced Around View Monitoring (AAVM) system of cameras that provides operators with maximum visibility all around the machine. The company also offers Intelligent Moving Object Detection (IMOD) technology which senses and warns the operator if people or objects come within 5m of the machine.

As part of Xite Transformation, HD Hyundai’s X-Wise artificial intelligence platform is designed to take site safety to the next level. Using safety sensors and fully autonomous machinery, such as the company’s futuristic 4.5 m³ unmanned excavator, it will be possible to separate high-risk equipment from site workers, reducing the risk of accidents and injury.

Through the use of connected robotics, HD Hyundai also demonstrated how a single operator will in the future be able to work remotely from the office, to control a range of machinery on site. The company aims to control equipment working in hazardous environments remotely, eliminating safety incidents and enhancing performance on site. Self-driving machinery with 3D machine guidance and control systems will be able to work autonomously, increasing productivity and providing a solution to future skilled labour concerns.

HD Hyundai are no strangers to hydrogen and electric power systems. Their shipping is already working towards a zero-carbon future, using hydrogen produced from renewable energy to power ocean-going vessels. The company is also developing road-going autonomous trucks powered by hydrogen, that will be able to deliver the fuel to more remote locations to power construction equipment.

Elsewhere within a 1000 m² display area, the company demonstrated Twin Xite Site Management. The X-Wise AI-powered construction management solution connects and collates vast amounts of data, collected from sensors and drones on site, along with machine learning technologies from excavators, loaders, and haulers, to model future works and to control equipment on the ground. Working through a collaboration with Google Cloud, HD Hyundai will be able to maximize the productivity and efficiency of equipment on site, while ensuring minimum risk to operatives.

Visitors to the exhibition were given the opportunity to try much of this technology for themselves, using simulators to control a wheel loader that was operating thousands of kilometres away in Atlanta. There were also virtual-reality headsets that allowed visitors to experience a range of future machines and solutions. Life-size futuristic autonomous construction equipment was present, giving visitors to the exhibition the chance to experience the construction industry of the future.

“Without changing the way we build, we cannot change our future,” said Mr Chung. “That’s why we at HD Hyundai are here today, to share HD Hyundai’s vision to change the course of humanity, by changing the future of the construction industry. We call it Xite Transformation, calling on all the latest technologies across all industries so we can transform how we build our infrastructure, our lives, our future. We have three main goals with Xite Transformation. First, enhancing safety on construction sites, for zero accident working using the latest digital technologies; second, delivering a quantum leap in productivity, through zero idle time and zero downtime on our construction sites, our ultimate goal being site autonomy; and third, decarbonizing our building sites, to make future construction net zero.”