Sany Heavy Industry, China Telecom, and Huawei Jointly Won the Smart Industry First Prize at “Zhan Fang Cup” 5G Application Contest
[Beijing, China, September 9, 2019] The joint application by Sany Heavy Industry, China Telecom, and Huawei for the “Intelligent, 5G MEC-based automated guided vehicle (AGV)” won the first prize of the “Smart Industry” category at the second “Zhan Fang cup” 5G application contest.
Representatives from Sany Heavy Industry, China Telecom Beijing, China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, and Huawei
The second “Zhan Fang cup” 5G application contest was held by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, and China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) under the guidance of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. With the theme "Future Is Coming, 5G-enabled Digitalization," this contest aimed to collect 5G applications from all industries, find innovative designs from both enterprises and individuals, and incubate 5G featured applications to lay a foundation for the large-scale test and commercial use of 5G. A total of 101 entries had been submitted to the "Smart Industry" contest category. “The intelligent, 5G MEC-based automated guided vehicle (AGV)” project jointly submitted by Sany Heavy Industry, Beijing Telecom, China Telecom Beijing Research Institute and Huawei finally won the first prize after rigorous preliminary, rematch and finals.
An AGV is a driverless vehicle fitted with an automatic guidance device. Generally, an AGV relies on communications technologies and travels on fixed paths in a controlled space. Driven by the demand for fully automated smart factories, AGV is developing towards multi-function autonomous mobile robots (AMR) that can sense data in real-time, identify security flaws, avoid many types of obstacles, make intelligent decisions and take actions autonomously. The AGV requires high computing capabilities. AGVs that use local computing and single-machine intelligent perception are costly and complex to schedule and manage, which greatly limits the development of AGVs.
The AGV innovation project jointly proposed by Sany Heavy Industry, China Telecom, and Huawei fully utilizes the 5G MEC platform. The robust platform integrates third-party applications and GPU computing capabilities, and can perform tasks requiring converged AGV visual and laser radar perception. It breaks the computing bottleneck, greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of functions for all AGVs, and improves their intelligence and level of standardization. E2E latency is controlled in milliseconds from sensing information collection, edge intelligent analysis and processing—the AGVs take fast action upon receiving control commands. This solution, coupled with V2X technology to comprehensively secure AGVs, realizes an intelligent network, improves the efficiency of production scheduling, and efficiently drives evolution from AGV to next-generation intelligent AMR. With the Huawei 5G MEC platform, AGVs are brought into more industry scenarios and industrial manufacturing is smarter, safer, and greener.
With the development of new information technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and mobile applications, revolution is on the agenda for industries worldwide, and transformation has already started. 46 projects were shortlisted out of the pilot smart manufacturing projects released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in 2015, and Sany Group was selected. As a leader in the mechanical manufacturing industry, Sany Group actively cooperates with partners to promote smart manufacturing, and improves and strengthens the Chinese manufacturing industry using information technology. 5G provides higher bandwidth and lower latency, and provides a strong foundation for smart industry. China Telecom will continue to leverage the core capabilities of 5G MEC, Network Slicing, and super uplink rates in the industry, actively promote the evolution to the 5G SA target network, adhere to co-construction and sharing, and become a powerful driver for smart industry.
Intelligent, 5G MEC-based AGV is just the beginning. Sany Heavy Industry, a leading smart manufacturing demonstration enterprise in China, will work with China Telecom, a global leader in 5G SA, and Huawei, the only real industry provider of E2E 5G solutions (including systems, chips, CPE, and mobile phones). The three parties will continue to leverage the advantages of 5G SA, such as its unprecedented uplink rate, ultra-low latency, slice isolation, and automatic service provisioning, and will deepen cooperation in 5G to promote the upgrade of the smart manufacturing industry and accelerate digital transformation in China.
