Hyundai Motor Group’s Supernal has announced a collaboration with Microsoft to advance autonomy, digital operations, and cloud integration technologies for the aviation industry by running Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) on the Microsoft cloud platform.
By using Microsoft Azure, Supernal will be able to leverage the flexibility and cloud computing power needed to run secure simulations at scale and accelerate its timeline to commercialization.
During the initial phase of the collaboration, Microsoft will provide Supernal early access to Project AirSim, an artificial intelligence (AI) simulation platform, to safely build, test, train and validate autonomous aircraft transportation through simulation. Project AirSim uses Azure to generate significant amounts of environment and sensory data to train machine learning models that simulate all phases of flight and variable weather patterns.
According to Supernal, the company is also looking to use the Microsoft mixed-reality headset, HoloLens2, to create augmented reality (AR) applications for future vehicle and manufacturing operations. Supernal believes using AR resources could enable efficiencies in future AAM manufacturing and maintenance by providing technicians visual feedback during routine actions and bring engineering support virtually on-site.
Dr. Jaiwon Shin, president of Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of Supernal, said: “In ushering in a new frontier of transportation with Advanced Air Mobility, Supernal has an obligation to ensure safe and secure deployment of eVTOL vehicles. We are pleased to collaborate with Microsoft, a software leader, in responsibly advancing AAM autonomous systems and information-sharing.”
Ulrich Homann, corporate vice president Cloud and AI at Microsoft, added: “Air transport is a key pillar in the democratization of mobility, connecting more people, goods and places through safe flight experiences. With the Microsoft Cloud, Supernal can unlock the computing power it takes to build, validate, and deploy electric air vehicles at scale, spurring the commercialization of advanced air mobility solutions.”
