This trial is aimed atdemonstrating a new industrial robotics application enabled with 5G services. The trial site will leverage an existing testbed at Ericsson, the Kista advanced laboratory, adding local edge computing along with extreme broadband radio access (NR) to realise and test the machine vision for real-time assisted human-robot interaction over 5G. To further investigate real-world industrial robotics applications running over 5G, co-existence investigations between indoor local and outdoor deployments are planned to give a better understanding of the performance of such applications in a co-existence environment.
The trial site is located in an Ericsson factory in Kista (Sweden) inside an Ericsson smart factory and has its focus on 5G enhanced mobile robotics applications. Three distinct use cases are realized at this site. The set-up consists of two stationary robots and a mobile robot that will collaboratively solve a task of transporting material between different robot workstations. Major parts of robot control functionality are moved into the edge cloud. Machine vision and video analysis are added to support the robot collaboration. In another use case, the purpose is to explore possibilities of enhancing real-time human-robot interactions, e.g. while a technician performs contactless teaching of robot arm motion through demonstration. The third use case deals with providing Augmented Reality (AR)-based visualisation of production-related information to the personnel on the factory floor. The feasibility of realising the use cases using 5G will be evaluated and demonstrated.
Location: Kista, Sweden
Dates: Q2-2021
Partners involved: ABB, Ericsson
Funding reference: Horizon 2020; ICT-19-2019 - Advanced 5G validation trials across multiple vertical industries
Funding cycle; June 2019-May 2022
Website | Twitter; @5g_smart | LinkedIn