Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Motors Group’s logistics subsidiary, has deployed two drones for inventory at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia in the first half of 2025. This was reported by The Korea Herald on Monday. As a result, the drones have reduced inventory checking time by 90 percent to an average of 30 minutes.
The two drones fly autonomously in the factory’s consolidation center. For orientation, the drones use fisheye cameras to capture certain features such as angles and surface patterns, as well as image processing. Together with images from stereo cameras, from which the height of the drone is determined, as well as information from the accelerometer and gyroscope, the drones determine their position in space. Accordingly, Hyundai does not use GPS, which hardly works indoors.
The drones send the location data and images of the parts to be inventoried in a predefined sequence to a logistics management system, which makes the data available for retrieval.
The drones work completely autonomously. Even the battery is changed fully automatically, they say. As soon as the energy runs out, the drone flies to a base station. The battery is then replaced robotically and stocktaking can continue.
Automatic, fast stocktaking
The use of drones has drastically reduced the time required for stocktaking. Previously, stocktaking was still carried out manually. An inventory check then took an average of 300 minutes. This time has now been reduced by 90 percent to 30 minutes.
Thanks to this success, Hyundai intends to use more drones at the plant in Georgia. Hyundai also plans to expand the entire system to other logistics centers of the Hyundai Motors Group. Hyundai is thus continuing its efforts to drive forward the automation of its plants and make them smarter. Hyundai’s plan is to achieve greater efficiency as a result.
Hyundai is already using robots and automated transportation vehicles at its plant in Georgia. By the end of 2025, the humanoid robot Atlas from Boston Dynamics, a subsidiary of Hyundai, will be deployed at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America.
(olb)
