
30 May 2024
The Robotics and AI research team will evaluate and test new functionalities for future 6G networks
The Robotics and AI research team at Luleå University of Technology will play an important role for the development of the 6G cellular network of the future. A large-scale field installation of an experimental 5G network at the research team’s subterranean laboratory will provide unique development and testing opportunities to exploit and define the future 6G networks, with a special focus on robotics, automation and IoT.
“This is a unique opportunity to shape the future 6G networks for robotics and industrial applications, for example, in the mining and construction sectors. We will conduct research on how we can exploit the experimental 5G networks’ capabilities, which will be standardized and integrated in future 6G networks, with the aim to enable autonomous systems to operate better in critical and industrial environments. This will cover various connectivity scenarios, such as robot-to-human communication, robot-to-robot communication and, finally, robot-to-control-centre communication,” says George Nikolakopoulos, Professor of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at Luleå University of Technology.
The experimental 6G-oriented 5G network is a unique opportunity for the Robotics and AI research team to develop and contribute to innovative functionalities of future generation of 6G networks, with a focus on robotized machine operations, localisation, Edge/Cloud and Industrial IoT applications.
“We want to contribute to research domains such as advanced and dynamic Quality of Service, QoS, accurate radio-based localisation, real-time dynamic resource allocation for critical systems applications, enhanced connectivity, network reconfigurability, edge computing and cloud applications among others,” says George Nikolakopoulos.
The deep mining of the future, and also the construction and space industries, will demand more and more fleets of multiple autonomous machines that explore, operate and resolve issues during harsh and difficult-to-reach environments. As the number of such machines will increase, the amount of data to be transmitted and processed in real time as well as the overall complexity of the orchestration of these machines will also exponentially increase, and an adaptive, intelligent 6G connectivity could be a solution to this problem. This is what Robotics and AI at Luleå University of Technology will focus on to contribute to the future 6G networks.
Since our unique laboratory in Sweden is subterranean, it allows the Robotics and AI team to test and conduct research in an environment that resembles the harsh environment of industrial deep mines. With this approach, the testing of innovative 6G features will be more efficient, as there is no need to travel to a mine to evaluate various configurations. Furthermore, different test scenarios and concepts about end-users could be directly tested without production stoppage and in a fully safe environment close to Luleå University of Technology. Although the infrastructure of today is very impressive as it is, the experimental 5G network in the subterranean laboratory testing 6G capabilities is what makes this facility prominent in Europe.
“For the industry, with which we work in close collaboration, it is especially important that we make sure that our experimental 5G installation at our SubT lab is an excellent playground for trying new concepts and conducting experiments to define the 6G networks of the future. We invite all relevant actors to interact with us, share visions about the future and together contribute to the industrial development of the coming 6G networks,” says George Nikolakopoulos.
The project is financed by Kempestiftelserna and LTU’s lab fund. The installation will be completed later this year.
Contact
George Nikolakopoulos
- Professor and Head of Subject
- 0920-491298
- george.nikolakopoulos@ltu.se
- George Nikolakopoulos
Published:
Updated: