May 2019

COMMENT n 5G: A KEY TOTHE FUTURE OF FACTORIES? 5G has hit the headlines in recent weeks for political, rather than technical, reasons. But the high-speed wireless communications technology could have far-reaching implications for factories of the future. It promises an era of ultra-fast, reliable, low-latency communications which could replace traditional signal cabling, resulting in flexible factories that can be re-arranged as production demands change. One of Europe’s leading suppliers of 5G technology, the Swedish communications giant, Ericsson, believes that industrial automation will be the key driver behind the development of 5G in Europe, unlike other parts of the world where the focus is more on consumer applications. At the recent Hannover Fair, Ericsson signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ABB, establishing a joint vision for future manufacturing in which flexible wireless automation will enable enhanced connected services, industrial IoT and artificial intelligence technologies. The two companies will collaborate on research in these areas and Ericsson’s CEO, Börje Ekholm, predicts that this collaboration will“unlock new business opportunities enabled by combining 5G with Industry 4.0”. Ericsson is also working with other automation partners. For example, at Hannover, it participated in a“digital twin”demonstration with the Italian manufacturer Comau in which visitors could view a digitised version of an automotive assembly line through virtual reality glasses. They were“immersed”in the line and could move inside it to monitor parameters such as vibration, temperatures and pressures. The digital twin demo gave a clear indication of how 5G could be harnessed to collect massive, continuous flows of data in real time which could help to identify potential problems, avoiding breakdowns and reducing the need for maintenance. “Bandwidth and low latency – main features of the new 5G technology – are the crucial factors that will us to accelerate digitisation and automation processes, enabling cutting-edge use cases in smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0,”says Magnus Frodigh, Ericsson’s head of research. Pilot installations of 5G technologies are already starting to appear in factories. As we reported recently, a 5G trial has gone live at a UK plant operated by the boiler-maker Worcester Bosch. And in Finland, Nokia is applying 5G technologies in a plant where it produces 5G base stations. The company envisages a future in which high-speed wireless communications will be used monitor production supplies and to summon autonomous mobile robots to replenish the supplies automatically before they run out. 5G could also enable smart sensors with self-diagnostic capabilities, allowing them to be repaired or replaced – possibly using autonomous robots – before they failed. Such capabilities may become a reality sooner than you might imagine, with 5G expected to have the fastest roll-out of any wireless generation, with four billion connections reaching 40% of the world’s population by 2024. If such adoption rates can be achieved, the political squabbles over 5G might become a mere historical footnote. Tony Sacks, Editor eliability of r A new definition shiny O200 Photoelectric Miniature Sensors Slightly larger than a honey bee and just as reliable: the O200 miniature sensors enable extremely reliable object detection even with ultra-black, , transparent or small objects. Unaffected by LED light or reflections. Learn more at: 60_DC www.baumer.com/O200 AB19-11