Hyundai Motor Group’s high technology was behind Korea’s ‘crazy archery’

Seoul [South Korea]: As Korean national archery team achieved all three gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, attention is also focusing on Hyundai Motor Group, which has supported Korean archery.

According to the industry on the 27th, Hyundai Motor Group started a technical support project for Korean archery to win the medals at Tokyo Olympics, led by Chairman Chung Eui-sun, who is the chairman of the Korean Archery Association since the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Chairman Chung judged that Korean archery is the best in the world, but combining Hyundai Motor Group’s future cars R&D technology will improve the athletes’ skills more, and started to support high-tech technologies such as AI, vision recognition, and 3D printing. It is for making the quality and performance of the equipment more perfect and contributing to minimizing various problems, such as athletes’ mental health.

Hyundai Motor Group listened archery athletes’ opinions and carefully reviewed on areas that could apply with the group’s R&D technology. After the revision, Hyundai Motor group supported technology in five fields: high precision shooting machine, automatic score recorder, vision-based heart rate measurement, deep learning vision AI coach and customized grip.

A high-precision shooting machine that picks out the highest quality arrows

In archery, arrows are essential equipment for the player’s best performance with bows. Players usually spend a lot of time for testing arrows by themselves to select arrows that fit to them with high quality.

In order to automatize the testing process, Hyundai Motor Group and the Archery Association developed the ‘Shooting Machine’. Hyundai Motor Group dramatically improved the shooting machine in precision and accuracy compared to previous equipment manufactured for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Athletes can test whether the new arrow is defective or not by shooting arrows with the shooting machine at a distance of 70m. If the arrow hits at the target and makes a shot group within a certain range, it will pass. It can be tested under the same conditions, such as strength, direction, and speed, so arrows can be classified without limitation in athlete’s condition, weather, or temperature.

Training like real with the automatic score recorder

Another technology that Hyundai Motor Group has supported to improve the skills of the national archery team is the automatic score recorder. It is a technology that automatically reads and records scores by applying ‘electronic targets’ based on precision sensors.

The electronic targets display scores on the monitor screen in real time through wireless communication. Players or coaching staff can efficiently check scores without going directly to the target or looking through a telescope. Not only the scores, but also the arrow-hitting position is also displayed on the monitor.

Scores and shooting position data are automatically stored in training data centers to be used as big data. Those data were connected to the player’s shooting video and heartbeat information and used for comprehensive analysis, check, and train the player’s condition.

Through the system, players maximized their real competition experiences during general training. The scores can be checked immediately after shooting, so it was possible to have a ‘real game mode’ that two players competed for the scores like the actual game.

Vision-based heart rate measurement to check ‘tensions’

Hyundai Motor Group also supported ‘Vision-based heart rate measurement’ equipment to the national archery team to improve the performance by controlling psychological factors.

Heart rate is an important indicator to check player’s tension. Hyundai Motor’s vision-based heart rate measuring equipment detects pulse waves by checking color changes in player’s face, and measures heart rate. Considering that it is difficult to measure biometric signals by touching during games or training, it utilized advanced vision computing technology.

Hyundai Motor Group developed and applied a special facial recognition algorithm that identifies the player’s face that is pulling the bow to measure a more accurate heart rate and filters out surrounding noise. In order to minimize interference in training, high-zoom cameras for broadcasting were also applied. The coaching staff of the national archery team actively used it to eliminate psychological anxiety of players by connecting heart rate data and scores recorded during training.

In addition, Hyundai Motor Group cooperated with Korean meditation app companies to produce and support ‘Meditation App for Archery Team’. Based on the opinions of psychological experts at the Korea Sports Policy Science Institute that has supported the national teams, the meditation contents are customized for individual players to maintain a comfortable psychological state regardless of time and place.

‘Deep Learning Vision AI (Artificial Intelligence) Coach’ for analysis training videos

‘Deep learning vision AI coach’ provided to the national archery team is the technology developed by Hyundai Motor Group’s AI specialized team, AIRS, that automatically edits athletes’ training videos to facilitate analysis.

Previously, people made analytical data one by one by comparing the videos of players pulling and shooting arrows that recorded during training and competition and the videos of arrows hitting the target.

However, ‘AI Coach’ automatically edits two videos into a single short video by capturing exactly when the player’s set up and release moment and the point of arrow hitting target. It has maximized its utilization by excluding unnecessary videos such as preparation.

‘Customized Grip’ that scanned players’ hands with 3D scan to optimize the grip design

Hyundai Motor Group and the Archery Association judged that if a grip is damaged during a long-term match like the Tokyo Olympics, can destroy players’ condition as they have to make new grips familiar. So Hyundai Motor provided customized grips that fit athletes’ hands by using 3D scanner and 3D printer technology. The grips that the players had already used and fit their hands were scanned with the 3D scanner, and even tiny scratches were perfectly reproduced with a 3D printer.

Hyundai Motor Group has produced customized grips and provided them to athletes since last Rio Olympics. For the Tokyo Olympics, it has diversified grip materials by using new materials such as Alumide and PA12.