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KAIST Honors BMW and Hyundai with the 2022 Future Mobility of the Year Award
BMW ‘iVision Circular’, Commercial Vehicle-Hyundai Motors ‘Trailer Drone’ selected as winners of the international awards for concept cars established by KAIST Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility to honor car makers that strive to present new visions in the field of eco-friendly design of automobiles and unmanned logistics.
KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) hosted the “2022 Future Mobility of the Year (FMOTY) Awards” at the Convention Hall of the BEXCO International Motor Show at Busan in the afternoon of the 14th.
The Future Mobility of the Year Awards is an award ceremony that selects a model that showcases useful transportation technology and innovative service concepts for the future society among the set of concept cars exhibited at the motor show.
As a one-of-a-kind international concept car awards established by KAIST's Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility (Headed by Professor Jang In-Gwon), the auto journalists from 11 countries were invited to be the jurors to select the winner. With the inaugural awards ceremony held in 2019, over the past three years, automakers from around the globe, including internationally renowned automakers, such as, Volvo/Toyota (2019), Honda/Hyundai (2020), and Renault (2021), even a new start-up car manufacturer like Canoo, the winner of last year’s award for commercial vehicles, were honored for their award-winning works.
At this year’s awards ceremony, the 4th of its kind, BMW's “iVision Circular” and Hyundai's “'Trailer Drone” were selected as the best concept cars of the year, the former from the Private Mobility category and the latter from the Public & Commercial Vehicles category.
The jury consisting of 16 domestic and foreign auto journalists, including BBC Top Gear's Paul Horrell and Car Magazine’s Georg Kacher, evaluated 53 concept car contestants that made their entry last year. The jurors’ general comment was that while the trend of the global automobile market flowing fast towards electric vehicles, this year's award-winning works presented a new vision in the field of eco-friendly design and unmanned logistics.
Private Mobility Categry Winner: BMW iVision Circular
BMW's 'iVision Circular', the winner of the Private Mobility category, is an eco-friendly compact car in which all parts of the vehicle are designed with recycled and/or natural materials. It has received favorable reviews for its in-depth implementation of the concept of a futuristic eco-friendly car by manufacturing the tires from natural rubber and adopting a design that made recycling of its parts very easily when the car is to be disposed of.
Public & Commercial Vehicles Categry Winner: Hyundai Trailer Drone
Hyundai Motor Company’s “Trailer Drone”, the winner of the Public & Commercial Vehicles category, is an eco-friendly autonomous driving truck that can transport large-scale logistics from a port to a destination without a human driver while two unmanned vehicles push and drag a trailer. The concept car won supports from a large number of judges for the blueprint it presented for a groundbreaking logistics service that applied both eco-friendly hydrogen fuel cell and fully autonomous driving technology.
Jurors from overseas congratulated the development team of BMW and Hyundai Motor Company via a video message for providing a new direction for the global automobile industry as it strives to transform in line with the changes in the post-pandemic era.
Professor Bo-won Kim, the Vice President for Planning and Budget of KAIST, who presented the awards, said, “It is time for the K-Mobility wave to sweep over the global mobility industry.” “KAIST will lead in the various fields of mobility technologies to support global automakers,” he added.
Splitting the center are KAIST Vice President Bo-Won Kim on the right, and Seong-Kwon Lee,
the Deputy Mayor of the City of Busan on the left. To Kim's left is the Senior VP of BMW Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Jean-Philippe Parain, and to Lee's Right is Sangyup Lee,
the Head of Hyundai Motor Design Center and the Executive VP of Hyundai Motors.
At the ceremony, along with KAIST officials, including Vice President Bo-Won Kim and Professor In-Gwon Jang, the Head of Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobility, are the Deputy Mayor Seong-Kwon Lee of the City of Busan and the figures from the automobile industry, including Jean-Philippe Parain, the Senior Vice President of BMW Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, who is visiting Korea to receive the '2022 Future Mobility' award, and Sangyup Lee, the Head of Hyundai Motor Design Center and the Executive Vice President of Hyundai Motor Company, were in the attendance.
More information about the awards ceremony and winning works are available at the official website of this year's Future Mobility Awards (www.fmoty.org).
Profile:In-Gwon Jang, Ph.D.Presidentthe Organizing Committeethe Future Mobility of the Year Awardshttp://www.fmoty.org/
Head ProfessorKAIST Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Mobilityhttps://gt.kaist.ac.kr
2022.07.14 View 9703 -
Team USRG’s Winning Streak Continues at the AI Grand Challenge
Team USRG (Unmanned Systems Research Group) led by Professor Hyunchul Shim from the School of Electrical Engineering has won the AI Grand Challenge 2020 held on Nov. 23 at Kintex in Ilsan, Kyonggi-do for the second consecutive year. The team received 7.7 million KRW in research funding from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the organizer of the challenge.
The team took a little over two minutes to complete the rescue operation mission of the challenge. The mission included swerving around seven obstacles, airdropping an aid package, and safely landing after identifying the landing spot. Their drone is the only one that successfully passed through a 10-meter tunnel out of five pre-qualified teams: three from universities and two from companies.
The AI Grand Challenge, which began in 2017, was designed to promote AI technology and its applications for addressing high-risk technical challenges, especially for conducting complex disaster relief operations.
For autonomous flying drones, swerving to avoid objects has always been an essential skill and a big challenge. For their flawless performance in the rescue operation, the team loaded an AI algorithm and upgraded their drone by improving the LiDAR-based localization system and a stronger propulsion system to carry more sensors. The drone weighs 2.4 kg and carries a small yet powerful computer with a GPU.
This AI-powered drone can complete rescue missions more efficiently in complicated and disastrous environments by precisely comprehending where the drone should go without needing GPS. The team also designed an all-in-one prop guard and installed a gripper onto the bottom of the drone to hold the aid package securely.
“We tried hard to improve our localization system better to resolve issues we had in the previous event,” said Professor Shim. Two PhD candidates, Han-Sob Lee and Bo-Sung Kim played a critical role in developing this drone.
After their two-year winning streak, their prize money now totals 2.4 billion KRW, equivalent to the winning prize of the DARPA Challenge. As the winning team, they will collaborate with other champions at the AI track challenge to develop rescue mission technology for a more complex environment.
“The importance of AI technology is continuing to grow and the government is providing large amounts of funding for research in this field. We would like to develop very competitive technology that will work in the real world,” Professor Shim added.
His group is investigating a wide array of AI technologies applicable to unmanned vehicles including indoor flying drones, self-driving cars, delivery robots, and a tram that circles the campus.
2020.12.01 View 7380 -
Wall Climbing Quadcopter by KAIST Urban Robotics Lab
Popular Science, an American monthly magazine devoted to general readers of science and technology, published “Watch This Creepy Drone Climb A Wall” online describing a drone that can fly and climb walls on March 19, 2015. The drone is the product of research conducted by Professor Hyun Myung of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST. The flying quadcopters can turn into wall-crawling robots, or vice versa, when carrying out such assignments as cleaning windows or inspecting a building’s infrastructure. Professor Myung leads the KAIST Urban Robotics Lab (http://urobot.kaist.ac.kr/). For a link to the article, see http://www.popsci.com/watch-drone-climb-wall-video.
Another Popular Science article (posted on April 3, 2015), entitled “South Korea Gets Ready for Drone-on-Drone Warfare with North Korea,” describes a combat system of drones against hostile drones. Professor Hyunchul Shim of the Aerospace Engineering Department at KAIST developed the anti-drone system. He currently heads the Unmanned System Research Group, FDCL, http://unmanned.kaist.ac.kr/) and the Center of Field Robotics for Innovation, Exploration, aNd Defense (C-FRIEND).
2015.04.07 View 11361 -
Professor Shim Featured with His Drone System in IEEE Spectrum
The IEEE Spectrum, a technology and science magazine published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), featured an article of KAIST’s autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) entitled “South Korea Prepares for Drone vs. Drone Combat,” posted on April 1, 2015.
The article introduces the anti-drone defense system being developed by Professor “David” Hyunchul Shim of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST. With the goal of developing guard drones that can detect and capture unknown UAVs, the anti-drone defense system consists of reconnaissance drones, agile multi-rotor UAVs equipped with nets which are dropped to snare enemy drones, and transport UAVs to carry smaller drones.
Professor Shim currently leads KAIST’s Unmanned System Research Group (USRG, http://unmanned.kaist.ac.kr/) and Center of Field Robotics for Innovation, Exploration, aNd Defense (C-FRIEND).
For the article, please go to http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/aerial-robots/south-korea-drone-vs-drone.
2015.04.02 View 11431 -
Strawberries Delivered by A Miniature Drone at KAIST Spring Festival
The "HAPPY KAIST 2014 Spring Festival" held at KAIST from 4th April
The Cherry Blossoms Festival under the theme of "Cherry Blossoms: Light and Fantasy" held on 4th April
The Strawberry Party with strawberries exclusively delivered by a miniature drone on 11th April
KAIST is holding a spring festival from April 4th through 11th.
As a part of the "HAPPY KAIST 2014" event, cherry blossoms festival and strawberry party will be held at KAIST campus starting on April 4th.
This event has been organized with the purpose of creating a new culture and tradition for members of KAIST to unite. Faculty members, staff, and students have all contributed to making the festival a success.
The cherry blossoms festival, held under the theme of "Cherry Blossoms: Light and Fantasy," takes place at the road in front of the KAIST north dormitory, which provides a spectacular view of cherry blossom trees. It begins on the night of April 4th and continues until the 8th of April.
Around the cherry blossom tree road displays an art exhibition by the Design Rangers, a student club of graduate and doctorate students from the Department of Industrial Design at KAIST. The exhibition includes the "Fantasy Cherry Blossoms" and "Let’s Walk Together."
Following on the 11th will be the "Strawberry Party" to take place throughout the campus. The strawberry party began in 1995 in order to help the local strawberry farmers. Now, it has become KAIST’s own unique tradition attended by faculty, student clubs, and laboratory members.
This year, the fruit party becomes a unique event in that there will be a demonstration of strawberry delivery by an unmanned vehicle or an unmanned aerial vehicle (a miniature drone).
When a customer orders strawberries via a smart phone application, the user's current location is sent to the central system of an unmanned vehicle. Either the unmanned vehicle (UV) transports strawberries or for places
inaccessible
by the UV such as on a lawn, the drone delivers the fruit to the customer
.
This demonstration has been organized by Professor Hyunchul Shim from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST. Professor Shim said, “If the unmanned logistics system, such as the one being demonstrated at the Strawberry Party, is commercialized, both cost and time
in the logistics industry
can be significantly reduced.”
The HAPPY KAIST 2014,
organized
by the College of Engineering, is an annual event, consisting of a total of five programs, with the purpose to make the campus happier and
healthier.
2014.04.07 View 9205 -
When Technology Meets Spring: A Drone Delivering Strawberries Greets the Change of Seasons in KAIST
KAIST celebrates the arrival of spring by hosting a variety of cultural events for university members as well as the surrounding community members.
The "Happy KAIST 2014" will be held from April 4 to April 11th, which includes the “Cherry Blossoms Festival” and “Strawberry Party.” The event is free and open to the public.
As part of the strawberry party, visitors to the campus can order the fruit to be delivered to the place where they sit via a drone developed by Professor Hyunchul Shim of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST.
The strawberry delivery by a drone starts on April 11. Throughout the campus, the drone will deliver up to 100 containers of strawberries to customers.
Pictures:
A drone delivers a small container of strawberries ordered by students.
2014.04.04 View 8071