Hyundai Motor, Toyota join forces for AI robot

Hyundai Motor Group and Toyota -- the world’s third and first top-selling auto giants, respectively -- have teamed up to advance the development of artificial intelligence and robotics.

According to Hyundai-backed Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute on Wednesday, the two sides decided to join forces to accelerate the development of general-purpose humanoid robots using the former’s two-legged Atlas robot and the latter’s large behavior models, or LBMs.

“There has never been a more exciting time for the robotics industry, and we look forward to working with (Toyota Research Institute) to expand the development of general-purpose humanoids,” said Robert Playter, CEO of Boston Dynamics.

“This partnership is an example of two companies with a strong research-and-development foundation coming together to work on many complex challenges and build useful robots that solve real-world problems.”

The companies said the joint project is designed to leverage each partner's strengths and expertise. They explained that the physical capabilities of the Atlas robot, which is coupled with the ability to programmatically command and teleoperate a broad range of whole-body bimanual manipulation behaviors, would allow research teams to deploy the robot across a range of tasks and collect data on its performance.

This data will be used to support the training of advanced LBMs, utilizing rigorous hardware and simulation evaluation to demonstrate that large, pre-trained models can enable the rapid acquisition of new robust, dexterous and whole-body skills, they said.

“Recent advances in AI and machine learning hold tremendous potential for advancing physical intelligence,” said Gill Pratt, chief scientist for Toyota and CEO of Toyota Research Institute.

“The opportunity to implement (Toyota Research Institute’s) state-of-the-art AI technology on Boston Dynamics’ hardware is game-changing for each of our organizations as we work to amplify people and improve quality of life.”

The two companies said that the joint team would also conduct research to answer fundamental training questions for humanoid robots, including the ability of research models to leverage whole-body sensing and understanding of human-robot interaction and safety, and assurance cases to support these new capabilities.

Yoo Ji-woong, an analyst at DAOL Investment & Securities, said that Hyundai Motor would collaborate with Toyota in various areas such as hydrogen, robotics and AI.

“Through their cooperation, Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute will work together to develop robots that can take in swift technologies based on their data analysis. Tesla and BMW announced plans to introduce humanoid robots and Hyundai Motor will increase its utilization rate by implementing them," Yoo said.

The analyst noted that the collaboration between Hyundai Motor and Toyota will highlight the synergy between the world No. 1 and 3 automakers outside China. Hyundai Motor has been focusing on hydrogen businesses and they will be able to co-develop such businesses with Toyota.