Become a professional archer for 15 minutes at Hyundai's 'Path of an Archer' experience

Hyundai Motor's 'The Path of An Archer' exhibit at Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang offers visitors an immersive experience in the world of professional archery.

Kang Chae-young, gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games shoots an arrow at Hyundai Motor’s “The Path of An Archer” experience. [CHO YONG-JUN]

GOYANG, Gyeonggi — You are now a member of the Korean national archery team: Hold your breath and aim for the bull's-eye.

Hyundai Motor’s “The Path of An Archer” experience gives visitors a glimpse into a professional archer’s journey and the Korean carmaker's 40-year relationship with the sport.

From Friday to Aug. 18 at Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang in Gyeonggi, visitors can embark on a short archery career using a practice bow and arrow in front of a 19-meter (62-foot) by 3.5-meter display. Participants will begin on a virtual training ground and advance to a virtual professional-level competition as a national team archer.

The exhibition also showcases different technologies developed by Hyundai Motor to assist archers, ranging from a self-adjusting shooting robot to customized 3-D-printed bow grips and camera-based heart rate sensors.

“The 3-D-printed bow grip is the [Hyundai-developed] technology that I made the most use out of,” Kang Chae-young, gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, told reporters at the exhibition on Thursday.

The athlete explained that conventional bow grips, made out of wood and other materials, take multiple days to produce, adjust and finesse to a player's preference, whereas the 3-D-printed bow grips allow for quicker adjustment, allowing more time to “focus on actual practices.” Gold medalist Kang prefers grips made from Alumide, a nylon and aluminum dust composite.

“We only had cup noodles and dosirak [packaged meals] to eat at the Tokyo Olympics due to the pandemic and Chair Euisun Chung provided us with grilled eel to cheer us up,” Kang said.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung is also the president of Korea Archery Association and World Archery Asia. Chung is currently in Paris to support the national archery team.

Self-adjust shooting robot developed by Hyundai Motor helps athletes in their archery training. [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

The carmaker also designed a self-adjusting shooting robot that allows athletes to practice with a virtual rival. The machine adjusts itself to accommodate height differences on outdoor fields and takes account of the wind direction and speed when shooting arrows, according to Hyundai Motor.

The machine averaged a score of 9.65 out of 10 and won a competition against the Korean national archery team in July.

“We also adjust ourselves based on the wind, but it all comes down to the feeling. And being a machine, it was shooting a 10/10 score even in windy situations,” Kang said.

The archery experience also showcases Hyundai’s multicamera posture analysis system, inspired by the surround view cameras in its vehicles, to capture top and front-view footage for post-shot analysis alongside a camera-based heart rate sensor.

“The technological and gear-related support means that players can focus on the match better,” Olympic gold medalist Oh Jin-hyuk said. “I hope this helps the Korean national team get one step closer to our objective,”

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]