NTU-Hyundai to tap AI, 3D printing for electric vehicle manufacturing

(L-R) Hyundai Motor Group Senior Vice President Hong Bum Jung, President & Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Youngcho Chi, NTU President Professor Subra Suresh and NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong were in attendance at the signing ceremony held at NTU on 1 Sep 2021.

NTU Singapore and Hyundai Motor Group have entered into an agreement to conduct a series of joint research projects focusing on advanced solutions for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) and to develop future mobility solutions.

Focusing on Industry 4.0 technologies, these projects aim to develop solutions that can transform conventional car manufacturing facilities into state-of-the-art factories of the future.

Four pilot projects on artificial intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing (3D printing) will be explored in the initial stage which starts this month.

To ensure the quality of Battery Electric Vehicles (vehicles powered entirely by batteries), one of the projects aims to develop machine learning algorithms for vehicle image processing. The application of an AI-based image processing sensor in the plant will help detect defects and anomalies during the manufacturing process, ensuring high levels of safety and reliability of the final product.

The signing ceremony follows an earlier announcement made in October 2020 during the virtual groundbreaking ceremony for Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore (HMGICS). During the ceremony, NTU was announced as the first academic research partner for the Group’s HMGICS initiative.