Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021 - ST-10

What Will 5G Do?
using digital twins on a more or less regular
basis. If you're going to put a whole
lot of technology into a satellite and
send it into low Earth orbit, it will likely
need servicing. If there are software
updates, they can first be tested on
earth in a digital twin - a real-time digital
counterpart of the satellite -
before uploading it. For the digital twin
to stay up-to-date with the real thing, a
large amount of data needs to be transmitted
at high speed, which is perfect
for 5G.
Figure 2. Augmented Reality applications visually overlay 3D information on top of live video to pinpoint
problems and guide technicians through the complete repair process. (Image courtesy of Oracle)
Virtual and Augmented Reality
For virtual reality, detectable latency is
unacceptable. So, the high bandwidth,
high throughput, and low latency of 5G
is a perfect fit. One application where
virtual reality is useful, rather than just
entertaining, is for simulators to train
operators of systems that could be deadly
if anything goes wrong. For example,
aircraft, railroad, or ship operators, and
most definitely operators of nuclear
reactors.
" I've been in a training room for a
ship, where you see nothing but blank
walls, but when you put on the virtual
reality goggles, you see all the controls
that you would normally expect to see in
a ship. If the simulator is also a digital
twin, these virtual controls will do what
they would do on an actual ship, " said
Anderson.
Figure 3. Machine learning predictions can be used to automatically drive maintenance workflows
to perform predictive maintenance and avoid costly downtime. (Image courtesy of Oracle)
rier-grade mobile telephone network.
But the reliability requirement for
industrial applications is typically six-9s
(99.9999%). 5G networks can deliver
that level of reliability by using cell
duplication, the clever use of radio spectrum,
and massive MIMO (multiple-in,
multiple-out) antennas. "
In order to bring a 5G signal from a
telco into a factory, an antenna that
looks like a miniature cell tower would
have to be set up inside of the building.
To use this in an industrial application,
you would need a much larger infrastructure
inside of the building - you
couldn't just simply penetrate the building
and you're done - it's a lot more
10
Cov
complicated. Depending on the frequency
range, you may not necessarily
be able to even see the signal on the
other side of the building. There are
girders and all kinds of things that will
absorb the signal. So, you'd need multiple
antennas. Whoever is setting up the
factory must make sure that those antennas
have adequate coverage inside of the
building and that there are no dead
spots.
Prime Candidates for 5G
Digital Twins
A digital twin is a real-time dynamic
representation of a physical system. For
example, the aerospace industry is
www.techbriefs.com
ToC
" Another augmented reality application
is enabling service technicians -
and especially third-party technicians -
to perform a high-quality repair job.
Augmented reality could guide them
through the entire repair process, by
providing a prescriptive model of maintenance
to pinpoint the problem and
visually overlaying 3D animation on a
live video feed to show the sequence of
steps to be performed, " said Suri.
Predictive Maintenance
5G would also be helpful for predictive
maintenance in cases where you
have an application with large amounts
of streaming data that you want to track
and analyze.
A critical application is for very large
motors or generators that could cause
severe damage if they failed or could
interrupt important services like power
generation. Real-time monitoring for
remote equipment, such as monitoring
gas compressors in the oil and gas industry
is another critical use case, according
to Suri.
Sensor Technology, October 2021

http://www.techbriefs.com http://info.hotims.com/79418-936

Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - October 2021