5G opens up a new multidimensional world
According to recent information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the country currently has deployed 690,000 5G base stations serving more than 160 million connected users, demonstrating that 5G commercialization is well underway. Apart from innovative applications in consumer-level markets such as AR and VR, the application prospects of 5G technology in the enterprise-level market will be even broader. 5G's massive connectivity, high reliability and low latency, combined with AI and edge computing, will surely drive disruptive innovation in all business sectors and open the door to a new, multidimensional world of innovation.
Vehicle-road collaboration accelerates implementation of the Internet of Vehicles
5G has accelerated the arrival of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) era. First, vehicles realize autonomous driving through smart perception and interaction with cloud traffic information; Second, through interconnection and information interaction between vehicles, safe driving is achieved. Finally, to achieve the smooth flow and safety of overall city traffic, it is necessary to realize the development of vehicle-road collaboration. The last point is particularly critical as evidenced by the recent deployment of China's 5G vehicle-road collaboration project in Suzhou, the first and only such project across the entire Yangtze River Delta. The project concerns China’s establishment of the first batch of city-level 5G IoV applications in Suzhou, transforming 224.75 kilometers of roadways into 5G smart networked roads, supporting millions of devices or processing tens of millions of data concurrently, and enabling more than 200,000 active users as well as 150 application scenarios. The latter include three 5G+vehicle-road collaborative application scenarios: roadside 5G over-the-horizon sensing, traffic light information push, and pedestrian collision prevention at intersections.
To achieve vehicle-road collaboration, it is essential to deploy smart devices on the side of the road referred to as roadside units (RSU). Through smart perception sensors, RSUs collect real-time data of vehicles, pedestrians and the environment along roads and at intersections, calculate and analyze these data at the edge, and release real-time traffic information and traffic forecasts to vehicles through V2X and 5G networks. At the same time, by sending information to the cloud, the traffic control cloud platform can optimize road traffic control and realize self-adjusting control of traffic lights at intersections. Furthermore, utilizing 5G's ultra-low latency, high reliability, and high-precision positioning technology, RSUs can monitor in real time the safe driving of vehicles and issue various warnings to vehicles. This is particularly important for ensuring vehicle safety at urban intersections and on expressways and intercity highways.
In the application of RSUs, Avnet offers multiple solutions ranging from smart perception to edge computing, from wired to wireless and cloud connection. In terms of smart perception, Avnet integrates advanced perception technologies based on ON Semiconductor image sensors, NXP millimeter wave radars, and ams laser radars, as well as environmental sensing such as temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind speed provided by TE Connectivity and other manufacturers. Edge computing platforms provided by Xilinx and NXP then perform AI-based calculations on the collected data. These solutions allow immediate protection of people and vehicles on the road, and interact with the traffic management cloud platform to realize information collaboration across the road network.
Industrial mobile robots empower smart manufacturing
As the manufacturing industry continues to move toward automation and intelligentization, an increasing number of “lights-out factories” have emerged in China, highlighting one of the major applications of 5G in empowering the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). For example, in the smart unmanned factories that produce Xiaomi mobile phones, all tasks are completed by robots, and the entire process is automated with unmanned lights-out production realized from production management, mechanical processing to packaging, storage and transportation. In the workshops of unmanned chemical plants, industrial mobile robots--automatic guided vehicles (AGV), complete handling, loading and unloading and other tasks. They can travel according to the preset guided path, follow the route to and from the material storage place and the destination, and automatically carry out material transportation. The robotic arms can complete loading and unloading and various fine operations. At the same time, the quality inspection is also completed using the machine vision system, eliminating the need for human intervention throughout the entire process.
The IIoT uses a time-sensitive network and requires precise synchronization of control. Therefore, for the manufacturing industry, 5G not only brings the convenience of wireless connection, but also provides low-latency and ultra-reliable services suitable for IIoT requirements. The AGV solution provided by Avnet integrates multiple sensors such as machine vision and ToF obstacle avoidance and path planning algorithms. Through 5G network connection and the use of cloud high-performance computer AI algorithms, real-time path planning, movement control and seamless cooperation of multiple devices can all be easily realized. In addition, work flow can be adjusted in real time according to business needs to realize flexible production.
Automated guided vehicle (AGV) designed by Avnet
As we all know, 5G networks offers massive connections, that is, the Internet of Everything; as such, another problem that arises is security. Whether in consumer-level or enterprise-level markets, ensuring network security is the most basic requirement. In this aspect, Avnet has developed a facial recognition algorithm based on the NXP platform to fulfill the security access requirements of industrial, household, and payment applications. At the same time, for nodes and devices in the Internet of Things, the secure encryption chip and trusted cryptographic module jointly provided by Avnet and Infineon can achieve different levels of security protection such as identity authentication, data communication encryption, software upgrade protection, and physical segregation. On the premise of safety and reliability, we will continue to accelerate the deployment process of various 5G innovative applications.
