FIDAL-VLC: 5G ROBOT RACE

2024

SAMRT NETWORKS AND SERVICES JOINT UNDERTAKING (SNS JU)

I+D COLAB. COMPETITIVA

Gómez Barquero David

The advent of 5G technology has revolutionized various industries and enabled the convergence between the physical and virtual worlds towards the 6G connected intelligence vision. Immersive communication, cognition and twinning, imply virtual representations in the digital world of entities in the physical and human worlds. These virtual representations have dynamic relations with sensors, actuators, screens and cameras. Connections between virtual representations in the digital world replace connections between mobile enddevices. The application of 5G advanced in remote control of mobile robots facilitates real-time, high-speed communication with enhanced reliability and reduced latency. This capability is instrumental in critical environments where immediate and precise actions are essential. A further component that can enhance the efficacy of remote robot control is the use of a Digital Twin as a virtual representation of the real environment that can be used to assist the robot operators in real time. The FIDAL-VLC project will develop, integrate and execute an innovative Beyond 5G (B5G) use case while extending the FIDAL infrastructure with a new node located at the campus of Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV) for large-scale trials. This node provides a testing environment with B5G features, including an advanced 5G private network and immersive and real-time Digital Twin characteristics, towards the applications of 6G and the connection between the real and virtual worlds. FIDAL-VLC will on-board Robotnik, a robot manufacturer, and Fivecomm, an SME and device provider, to execute different trials, as 5G network KPIs studies, streaming protocols latency optimization and robot positioning. The use case consists of the creation of a cutting-edge innovative testbed for remote driving use cases, connecting the real and virtual worlds through a Digital Twin-based user interface providing an immersive experience, taking advantage of this rich experimental environment that will allow the end-to-end optimization, including advanced 5G connectivity, real-time video streaming protocols, robotic telecontrol and Artificial Intelligence (AI), with application to the main verticals considered in FIDAL. In particular, the demonstration execution will consist of an immersive race between two mobile robots remotely driven through a 5G private network at UPV's outdoor velodrome, with immersive remote-driving cockpits located indoors at the Immersive Communications Lab with a visual interface showing real-time useful data as the speed of the robots. The race offers multi-vertical perspective: Media is involved since the robots stream back their video to the immersive cockpits; Entertainment is included as the robots are competing against each other, as well as the visualization environment resembles that of a video game; and Time critical applications are the main enabler that allows the drivers to reliably operate the robot cars.