Hankook Tire Unveils Mobile Future Mobility 'Wheelbot'

Proposal for "Spatially Shifted Mobility (SSM)"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Hankook Tire & Technology (Hankook Tire) announced on the 4th that it unveiled the results of the ‘Design Innovation 2022’ project through the ‘Design Innovation Day’ held as the opening event of the ‘2022 Made in Korea’ event.

The ‘Design Innovation Project,’ revealed on the 30th of last month at ‘Peaches Dowon,’ is Hankook Tire’s research and development program presenting a vision for future smart cities and the evolving innovative mobility industry. Since 2012, it has proposed comprehensive mobility solutions considering new concept future tires and mobility infrastructure systems.

This year, under the theme of ‘Urban Reshaping,’ the project focused on how mobility innovation will reorganize spaces within future smart cities. Reflecting the recently spreading eco-friendly trend, it set a human and environment-friendly future smart city and proposed a form optimized for such an environment called ‘Spatially Shifted Mobility (SSM).’

‘SSM’ is a spatially shifted mobility combining Hankook Tire’s innovative spherical wheel system with a minivan-sized pod, capable of three-dimensional movement from roads to inside and outside buildings via rails installed in buildings. It can be supplied to homes, medical, and work environments, allowing flexible spatial configuration as needed, thereby efficiently using resources and energy that would otherwise be wasted.

This year’s project was carried out through technical collaboration with the domestic robotics startup KalmanTech Co., Ltd. In particular, beyond ideas and virtual scenarios, the project included actual realization work to implement future mobility. They succeeded in producing the ‘Wheelbot’ featured in the scenario as a modular robotic wheel system driven by three axes. Visitors to the event were also given the opportunity to operate the actual ‘Wheelbot.’

While previous project results conducted in joint research with prestigious global design universities such as the University of Cincinnati in the U.S., the Royal College of Art in the U.K., and Pforzheim Graduate School in Germany were limited to animation videos containing scenarios and walking mockup work, this year’s project is significant in that it realized a finished product capable of autonomous driving and direct human operation.

The video of the results of ‘Design Innovation 2022’ can be viewed on Hankook Tire’s official YouTube channel. Additionally, it can be experienced directly at Peaches Dowon until October 9, when the Made in Korea event is held.

Starting with the ‘Wheelbot,’ Hankook Tire has launched an open innovation platform called the ‘Design Innovation Alliance (DIA)’ together with startups in the robotics field such as KalmanTech and mobility startups like MobilTech, and plans to continuously engage in collaborative research and development to realize mobility ideas.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.