Applied Intuition and Supernal Collaborate to Pursue Advanced Simulation of Safe Autonomous Advanced Air Mobility

Applied Intuition and Supernal are collaborating to enable testing, certification, and deployment of safe and reliable autonomous advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles.
February 3, 2022

Applied Intuition and Supernal are collaborating to enable testing, certification, and deployment of safe and reliable autonomous advanced air mobility (AAM) vehicles.

Supernal, a part of Hyundai Motor Group, is a U.S.-based smart mobility service provider on a mission to redefine how people move, connect, and live by developing an advanced air mobility electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle (Figure 1). The company’s core principles are building for safety, reducing noise pollution, designing for affordability, and accessibility. Supernal’s first electric air vehicle, expected to enter into service in 2028, will be piloted initially and autonomous-capable in accordance with regulatory standards.

Figure 1: 3D render of Supernal’s eVTOL aircraft, S-A1

Applied Intuition is the foremost enabler of autonomous system development. The company’s high-fidelity, physics-based simulation engine allows autonomous system development and validation teams to simulate all their stack components and achieve deterministic results. Fortune 500 companies across industries and most of the top 10 global automakers rely on Applied’s simulation and software tools to test and validate their autonomous systems.

“We believe Applied Intuition will be a strong long-term partner in developing premiere simulation tools for the emerging AAM market,” said Han Park, Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Head of R&D at Supernal. “Using Applied’s tools, we hope to create realistic simulations that can help validate and certify our autonomous control systems. However, the goal is to ultimately lower operating costs so everyone can use our vehicle.”

The partnership with Applied Intuition allows Supernal to validate that Applied’s tools will model the safety and reliability of Supernal’s autonomous AAM vehicles (Figure 2) and accelerate their path to certification. Supernal seeks to use Applied’s tools to test prediction and motion planning components in synthetic scenarios, simulate perception systems in synthetic 3D environments, and automate hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests.

Figure 2: 3D render of the S-A1 flying over urban areas

“Advanced Air Mobility will revolutionize the transportation landscape. We are excited to take part in Supernal’s journey to responsibly build an Advanced Air Mobility eVTOL vehicle,” said Peter Ludwig, CTO and Co-Founder of Applied Intuition. “Safety is the number one priority for AAM programs worldwide. Applied’s tools can help enable Supernal not only to verify and validate its autonomous eVTOL technology but also demonstrate the safety of their systems to regulators.”