Hyundai Motor Group has revealed TIGER (Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot), the company’s second Ultimate Mobility Vehicle (UMV) and the first designed to be uncrewed.
While only the size of a standard housecat, the transforming intelligent ground excursion robot is designed to carry various types of payload while travelling over challenging terrain.
TIGER is being developed by Hyundai Motor Group’s New Horizons Studio, headquartered in Mountain View, California. The studio was established in late 2020 to develop UMVs drawing on research and innovation leadership from Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs.
“Vehicles like TIGER, and the technologies underpinning it, give us an opportunity to push our imaginations,” said Dr. John Suh, Head of New Horizons Studio.
“We are constantly looking at ways to rethink vehicle design and development and re-define the future of transportation and mobility.”
TIGER’s exceptional capabilities are designed to function as a mobile scientific exploration platform in extreme, remote locations. Based on a modular platform architecture, its features include a sophisticated leg and wheel locomotion system, 360-degree directional control, and a range of sensors for remote observation. It is also intended to connect to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can fully charge and deliver TIGER to inaccessible locations.
To reach its destination, the TIGER X-1 (“eXperimental prototype-1”) can drive like a conventional AWD vehicle when its legs are retracted; or it can lock each wheel individually, and extend its legs to walk, hop or crawl its way across the barriers, berms and breaches in its way.
“We’ve been focusing more on the technology capabilities to TIGER X-1, and in future versions we’re going to be working to increase the size and payload capacity,” Dr Suh continued.
“At the same time, we had to garner some insights from our future customers about what they need in terms of size and capability.”
