Archives: Pilots

Pilots

Pilots

5G Connected Vehicle Hub

Thanks to 5G technology, the Applus+ IDIADA technical centre becomes the most important facility in Europe for testing connected mobility, which is a key step towards the development and introduction of the autonomous vehicle in the market.

Partners: Applus+ IDIADA, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Fundación i2CAT and the Departament de la Vicepresidència i de Polítiques Digitals i Territori de la Generalitat de Catalunya

Collaborators: Orange and Ericsson

Sector: Automotive

Use cases: This project aims to provide the necessary network technology to create a safe environment in which to test vehicles with 5G connectivity and bring the autonomous vehicle to the market.

Applus+ IDIADA, MWCapital Barcelona, i2CAT Foundation and the Departament de la Vicepresidència i de Polítiques Digitals i Territori de la Generalitat de Catalunya promote the availability of a private 5G network at the Applus+ IDIADA technical centre in Santa Oliva (Tarragona). This technology makes this facility the most relevant in Europe for testing and advancing connected vehicles.

Description of the technology:

The 5G private network used, as well as 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, have been awarded to Orange and Ericsson, and allow experimentation with the operation of services and applications under different network conditions, in a secure and confidential environment. Through the 5G Barcelona programme, the Applus+ IDIADA circuits will be used to promote the development of autonomous and connected mobility.

For this purpose, the Applus+ IDIADA technical centre covers an area of 370 hectares and has different tracks and laboratories that allow testing the behaviour of vehicles and components in different conditions. The tracks are currently being extended with the construction of specially designed circuits for testing autonomous and connected vehicles that recreate different driving environments, from urban scenarios to motorway driving.

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

One of the main added values of the project over other test environments is to have all radio technologies in one place, in a controlled environment and with the option of advanced and replicable network customisation.

This makes it possible to generate a larger number of scenarios and use cases for new developments in autonomous and connected cars. It also enables early identification and therefore immediate correction and testing of solutions for problems that may arise in mobile communications in real driving conditions (on-board services, vehicle monitoring and maintenance, remote functions, accident prevention, range reliability, etc.).

These new capabilities will provide the automotive industry with a real and fully secure environment to test the connectivity services of next-generation vehicles that will be launched on the market in the coming years. All this, with the possibility to implement a wide variety of tests: from basic connectivity, performance, telematics or infotainment tests of today to tests of future autonomous cars.

Status: In progress

Pilots

5G Smart Networks in isolated environments

The Smart Networks in isolated environments project is one of the first private 5G SA networks with advanced slicing pilots in Spain. The aim is to promote connectivity in environments with difficult accessibility in order to explore new applications based on real use cases.

Partners: Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), Caelum Labs, Neutroon and Italtel.

Collaborators: MásMóvil and Aotec, with the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Sector: Industry

Use cases: The Smart Networks in isolated environments project was created to create new demos to help develop innovative services in places of difficult accessibility thanks to the implementation of an autonomous private 5G network powered by Neutroon, as well as an Italtel WIFI-6 network to test and implement IoT solutions.

The project includes 3 demos:

  • 5G SA private network: This network will provide advanced connectivity to the farmhouse located in a rural area where the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) runs Valldaura Labs. This will give IAAC a real testbed to test its different smart city innovations. The 100% hybrid, multi-vendor network, provided by Neutroon, allows end-to-end slicing with just a few clicks to ensure low latencies and guaranteed SLAs.
  • Augmented Reality (AR): consists of the creation of an Augmented Reality experience within the IAAC Biocities project. Through the connectivity offered by the 5G SA private network and an Augmented Reality application, the user will be able to obtain a series of data on the origin of each of the pieces of 0 km wood used to build the cross-laminated timber panels that structure the Voxel, a cabin designed for the confinement of a person. The data that can be extracted from the wood are the species, the coordinates of the original tree, the volume and photos of the original tree.
  • Additive manufacturing: involves the creation of a peer-to-peer communication tool based on the identity credential to create a private communication network between IAAC and the different 3D printing hubs located in Barcelona. The aim is to offer the user a 360º experience in which they can securely access any 3D printing centre, select the printer they need and print the file securely without compromising the privacy of their personal data. Once the piece is printed, the machine will send a message to the courier service to pick it up and then deliver it to the recipient. And this is possible thanks to Caelum’s solution that uses blockchain and Identity technology. Digital Soberana creates a secure ecosystem that enables real interoperability between organisations that are part of the process and provides users with secure access credentials to interact between devices.

Description of the technology:

Slicing is one of the features that will enable the full potential of 5G technology to be reached. This feature allows multiple logical networks to be run as virtually independent business operations on a single common physical infrastructure efficiently and without requiring high production resources.

Main solution or advance offered by technology:

This is one of the first times that the slicing method for 5G networks has been used for a proof of concept in Spain. 5G networks cover an extremely wide range of use cases ranging from IoT solutions, simple internet access or entertainment, to mission-critical uses such as autonomous vehicles or remote surgery. Each of these applications has very different latency, throughput or criticality requirements, making it difficult for them to share the same physical network.

Slicing enables the creation of multiple virtual networks on a common shared physical infrastructure that provides dedicated virtual networks to meet the specific needs of different applications, services, devices, customers or operators. With the concept of slicing, 5G consolidates and makes accessible a range of technologies previously available in isolation, such as software-defined networking (SDN) and virtualised network functions (VFN).

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Pediatric Emergencies in Maritime Environments

5G Pediatric Emergencies in Maritime Environments aims to improve, thanks to 5G technology, care in the first minutes of a maritime health emergency, a key time to save lives. In the pilot, a child wears a subcutaneous paediatric device that alerts the Emergency Medical System (EMS) when it detects an anomaly in his or her heart rhythms.

Partners: Mobile World Capital Barcelona, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (HSJD), Vodafone, Port de Barcelona and Society for Rescue and Maritime Safety (SASEMAR).

Collaborators: Philips y Biotronik. It also has the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Sector: Health and healthcare

Use cases: The pilot test recreated the situation of a child who suffers a cardiac emergency on a boat near the Port of Barcelona. The child is wearing a subcutaneous pediatric device, which alerts the EMS when it detects an anomaly in his or her heart rhythms. Thanks to this warning, the EMS can activate the protocol for these cases.

The alert also reaches the cardiology service of the Hospital San Joan de Déu (HSJD), which calls the family to find out the situation for themselves. It examines the device remotely and, verifying that there is indeed a danger, asks the EMS to activate the relevant resources to assist the patient.

Once a highly complex pediatric ambulance from the EMS arrives at the port, the medical team moves to the swallow, the ship where the child is, with a SASEMAR (Society for Rescue and Maritime Safety) boat.

The child is then transferred to the SASEMAR boat, which returns to the Moll de la Fusta in the Port of Barcelona. On arrival on land, the child is treated in the pediatric ambulance and transported to hospital.

Description of the technology:

To provide assistance, the EMS contacts the HSJD via a high-resolution tablet with 5G, transmitting data in real time and stabilising the patient. Subsequently, thanks to the ultra-portable Philips Lumify ultrasound machine and a 5G mobile phone used as a router, an echocardiography is performed to evaluate the patient’s state of health more in detail.

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

The 5G technology and the devices used in this pilot, such as the high-resolution tablet, the ultra-portable Philips Lumify ultrasound scanner or the 5G mobile phone, make possible to arrive in time to attend the first minutes of a pediatric emergency and connect with the hospital to stabilise the patient even in a maritime environment.

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Autonomous Disinfectant Robot

Thanks to 5G technology and AI, an autonomous robot performs disinfection tasks to combat biological contamination (including Covid-19) in one of the largest food handling areas in the country, Mercabarna.

Partners: Mercabarna, ACCIONA, Orange and Mobile World Capital Barcelona

Colaborators: Generalitat de Catalunya

Sector: Industry

Use cases: The aim of this pilot project is to test the benefits of applying 5G connectivity to artificial intelligence systems by using it in an autonomous robot to disinfect areas that may be contaminated by viruses such as Covid-19, bacteria or other harmful microorganisms in industrial facilities, in this specific case Mercabarna, an area through which an average of 23,000 worker s pass every day.

Description of the technology:

Communication with the robot is almost immediate thanks to the ultra-low latency of 5G technology, which also brings other great advantages to this type of application, such as greater speed and scalability, allowing multiple devices to be connected.

In addition, 5G technology also enables the exchange of information between robotic vehicles (e.g. environmental parameters), so they can perform collaborative tasks autonomously, with the ability to detect and avoid obstacles. In this way, a worker can remotely control a robotic vehicle, resolving the high attenuation rates and the risk of communication outages that occur with other technologies such as Wi-Fi, LTE-M or NB-IoT.

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

The robot eliminates germs from surfaces and destroys any airborne particles using concentrated ultraviolet light (UV-C). In addition, the robot automatically switches off as soon as it detects someone in the area, as the intensity of the light can be harmful to people.

In addition to the UV lamp, this machine can move around the rooms autonomously thanks to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms. It only takes 2 hours to eliminate 99.99% of the harmful micro-organisms in the 3,869 m2 warehouse of Mercabarna’s organic food wholesale market, the Biomarket.

The use of an artificial intelligence system allows the machine to focus on the areas most likely to be contaminated, such as washbasins, door handles, food handling tables, counters, etc.; it then moves on its own to the different rooms of the facility. It also has an additional module to detect the presence of bacteria and biological fluids through fluorescence in order to monitor the hygiene of any room.

The robot can also be used in quarantine areas and laboratories, and could have civilian applications in the new post-pandemic scenario. This is the case for hotels, airports and other public places, which will have to deal with how to manage cleanliness so that they do not represent a health risk.

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Anticollision

The 5G Anti Collision pilot project is a warning system that will improve road safety in the future.

Partners: 5G Barcelona, MWCapital, Mercabarna, Orange, Fundació i2CAT, CTTC and the Departament de Polítiques Digitals de la Generalitat de Catalunya.

Sector: Industry and transport

Use cases: In this project, the use of 5G networks has brought together different advanced communication and localisation technologies both to monitor two vehicles -in this case, a forklift truck and a bicycle- on a collision course with each other, and also to issue a warning signal to prevent the crash.

Description of the technology:

Both the forklift truck and the bicycle were equipped with an On-board Unit device (OBU) connected to the 5G network which allows for the constant issue and receipt of messages. They were also equipped with another device (HW) necessary for geolocating vehicles accurately, by merging positioning data provided via satellite, autonomous inertial navigation systems that measure the vehicle’s acceleration and rotation and distance measurements based on radio technology, which provides additional accuracy and reliability in challenging and complex environments.
When the system detects a hazard-based on the cyclist’s course, a signal is emitted in order to activate a warning horn and to notify one of the two vehicles of the potential risk of collision.

Main solution or advance offered by technology:

5G technology offers the project extremely low latency guarantees (a very short delay between the issue and receipt of information), universal network availability (broad indoor and outdoor coverage) and scalability (increased capacity) with a view to providing service to a lot of devices at the same time. The pilot trial has also shown that it is feasible to integrate hybrid positioning solutions that increase the accuracy and robustness of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in 5G services when used in combination with communication and UWB positioning systems, inertial navigation systems (INS), and communication between vehicles and infrastructure (V2X).

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Maritime

5G Maritime is a project intended to track ships in real-time and with pinpoint accuracy and to yield data and images that will complement the information of the port’s current geolocalisation systems (AIS automatic tracking system and radar).

Partners: 5G Barcelona, MWCapital, Port de Barcelona, IBM, Vodafone, Huawei, Fundació i2CAT and the Departament de Polítiques Digitals de la Generalitat de Catalunya

Sector: Industry and mobility

Use cases: Around 9,000 ships per year anchor in the Port of Barcelona. These are vessels of highly diverse natures and sizes and some can measure up to 400 metres in length (about twice the length of a football pitch). Having very accurate information in real-time on their movements and geolocalisation is crucial, not only to optimise the port’s mooring space but also to offer maximum safety both to ships and to port services when manoeuvring.

Description of the technology:

The technological solution comprises the following elements:

  • An artificial intelligence model -IBM Maximo Visual Insights- created by IBM and trained in IBM Cloud to recognise ships, their bows and their sterns.
  • Two sets of Huawei high-performance cameras and 5G terminals located in the port. These capture the entry of ships in real-time.
  • Ultra-fast, low-latency communications provided by Vodafone’s commercial 5G network. These transmit images to the server, where the AI model is run on the images received, which it recognises and interprets.

The artificial intelligence model is distributed to a server located in the port’s control tower using IBM edge computing technologies – IBM Edge Application. A geolocalisation algorithm then translates the pixels from the images into geographical coordinates of latitude and longitude. These geolocalisation data are lastly integrated with the Port’s other systems. The Port of Barcelona therefore obtains both more accurate and real-time information on the location of ships.

Main solution or advance offered by technology:

The technological solution offers bow and stern geolocalisation and high-accuracy indication of ship movement, thus facilitating remote navigation assistance. It will provide ships’ pilots with accurate information of value for the operations of bringing vessels into the port and mooring them, such as the location of the different ships navigating the docks of the Port of Barcelona, or the course and even the speed of their own ship. This is all based on video analysis from 5G cameras installed throughout the port compound.

Status: Finished

Pilots

A fully 5G network

Barcelona will be the scene of the deployment of a fully 5G network, enabled to carry out the use cases contemplated in the project and which will remain in operation once the project is completed, in order to show the main advantages of this technology in different areas.

Partners: 5G Catalunya, 5G Barcelona, MWCapital

About 5G Catalunya

The 5G Catalunya project is developed by a consortium of 8 companies led by Cellnex Telecom and the MASMOVIL Group, with the participation of the Catalan provider Parlem Telecom, the specialised in augmented reality for industry company, Aumenta Solutions, the engineering company Atos, the consultancy Nae, the technology company Lenovo and the start-up Nearby Computing –a Barcelona Supercomputing Center spin-off–.

5G Catalunya has been one of the successful bidders in the second call for 5G pilot development grants launched at the end of 2019 by Red.es, an entity of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, as part of the 5G National Plan. The initiative is financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Find out more about the 5G Catalunya project on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sector: Smart Cities

Case Studies: The project consists of seven case studies aimed at developing solutions in the areas of urban mobility, remote education, the industrial sector, remote purchasing, audiovisual transmission, security and emergency management in the urban environment, and the construction of a neutral multi-operator network to provide connectivity in areas with high seasonal occupation such as the beaches of the Barcelona coastline.

Description of tecnology: 

  • Low latency, reliability and robustness through 5G cameras connected to edge systems with artificial intelligence accelerators.
  • High bandwidth for transmission of high quality images and holograms or high definition video using 5G uplinks.
  • Massive communications between objects through mimetized equipment in urban furniture.

In addition, special attention will be paid to mitigate risks associated with network cybersecurity, as several use cases corresponding to sectors classified as critical will be considered.

Pilots

Use of the 5G network in the audiovisual sector

The digitization of communication and the emergence of information platforms accessed by citizens from multiple devices lead audiovisual producers to adopt new models and technologies.

Partners: 5G Catalunya, Xarxa Audiovisual Local, 5G Barcelona

Sector: Media and entertainment

In this pilot, in which the Local Audiovisual Xarxa is involved, the use of 5G technology is explored by deploying cameras and mobile phone devices in an event to capture and transmit through the 5G network with HD quality and send them to the central control of XAL / Betevé for remote production and distribution.

In this case the beamforming technology allows to adapt the bandwidth to the needs of the camera in question and to configure the data flow optimizing the available resources.

Pilots

Industry 4.0 and 5G

This use case developed by SEAT aims to use a private 5G network as a basis to deploy a platform that allows the location of assets inside a factory.

Partners: 5G Catalunya, SEAT, 5G Barcelona, MWCapital 

Sector: Industry

Currently, the SEAT factory in Martorell has multiple assets, scattered throughout the production plant, which are changing location. This makes it difficult to have quick access to these assets in case of having to make use of them, as well as to carry out an analysis of the trajectories that they follow. The main requirement for locating these assets is to have precision with a margin of error of a few meters, avoiding radiating the plant with complex infrastructure deployments in order not to generate interference with other management systems and operations control.

The objective of this use case is to develop a solution that allows the precise location of multiple types of assets, which will be composed of a location system and a software platform for their management. This platform will allow you to know their location, practically in real time, have a data history that allows you to trace the routes of said assets and identify anomalous situations and anticipate possible accidents.

The contribution of the 5G network in this use case will be key in simplifying the network infrastructure, providing low latency, supporting the industrial mobility scenario and being able to manage a high number of connected devices.

Pilots

Augmented reality for online shopping

This project aims to enrich the online shopping experience through the use of augmented reality for sellers and buyers.

Partners: 5G Catalunya, 5G Barcelona, MWCapital

Sector: Media and entertainment

To this end, the figure of the Augmented Reality (AR) Personal Shopper is created through which the seller obtains extra information about products and establishments through augmented reality glasses. Thanks to a connection system based on 5G technology, the same information is sent to the buyer together with the augmented reality interface, so that he can view it on his device (smartphone or tablet) and communicate with the seller via video conference. This communication is possible thanks to a system created by 5G infrastructures, taking advantage of the speed of this technology that allows the exchange of high resolution and high quality information with minimal latency.

This pilot takes place in the Boquería market in Barcelona.