A new model for 5G smart factories

In the 5G era, smart factories will greatly improve working conditions, reduce manual intervention in production lines, and improve the controllability of the production process. Most importantly, we can use information technology to connect all processes of the enterprise, achieve interconnection and interoperability in all links from design, production to sales, and achieve resource integration and optimization on this basis. Next, let's take a look at the new model of smart factories under 5G~

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A new model for 5G smart factories

1. 5G technology scenarios support intelligent manufacturing

As a new generation of mobile communication technology, 5G technology meets the application needs of wireless networks for the intelligent manufacturing transformation of traditional manufacturing enterprises, and can meet the application needs of equipment interconnection and remote interaction in industrial environments. 5G technology plays a supporting role in industrial application fields such as the Internet of Things, industrial automation control, logistics tracking, industrial AR, and cloud robots.

1. Internet of Things

As factories move toward smart transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT) as a key supporting technology for connecting people, machines and equipment is gaining great attention from enterprises. This demand not only promotes the application of IoT, but also greatly stimulates the development of 5G technology.

2. Industrial automation control

This is the most basic application in manufacturing plants, and the core is the closed-loop control system. 5G can provide a network with extremely low latency, high reliability, and massive connections, making closed-loop control applications possible through wireless network connections.

3. Logistics tracking

From warehouse management to logistics and distribution, wide coverage, deep coverage, low power consumption, large connections, and low-cost connection technologies are required. In addition, the end-to-end integration of virtual factories spans the entire life cycle of products. To connect widely distributed sold goods, low-power, low-cost, and wide-coverage networks are also required. Horizontal integration within or between enterprises also requires ubiquitous networks. 5G networks can meet such needs very well.

4. Industrial AR

In the production process of smart factories, people play a more important role. Since future factories are highly flexible and versatile, higher requirements are placed on factory floor workers. In order to quickly meet the needs of new tasks and production activities, augmented reality AR will play a critical role and can be used in the following scenarios in the smart manufacturing process: such as monitoring processes and production processes. Step-by-step guidance for production tasks, such as manual assembly process guidance; remote expert business support, such as remote maintenance. In these applications, auxiliary AR facilities need to be as flexible and lightweight as possible so that maintenance work can be carried out efficiently. 5G5. Cloud robots: In smart manufacturing production scenarios, robots are required to have the ability to self-organize and collaborate to meet flexible production, which brings about the need for robots to be cloud-based. 5G network is an ideal communication network for cloud robots and is the key to enabling cloud robots.

* Summary:

5G technology has become a key enabling technology to support the transformation of intelligent manufacturing. It can connect widely distributed and scattered people, machines and equipment to build a unified Internet network. The development of 5G technology can help manufacturing companies get rid of the chaotic application status of previous wireless network technology, which has positive significance for promoting the implementation of the industrial Internet and the deepening transformation of intelligent manufacturing.

2. The core of intelligent manufacturing is the smart factory

As the information revolution intensifies, manufacturing elements such as machines, equipment, people and products are no longer independent individuals. Instead, they are closely linked together through the Industrial Internet of Things to achieve a more coordinated and efficient manufacturing system.

The current transformation of the manufacturing industry can be seen as the integration and improvement of automation upgrades and information technology. This is not just about automation and replacing people with machines, but also about factories being able to make autonomous decisions, flexibly produce diversified products, and quickly respond to more market changes.

The combination of artificial intelligence and manufacturing systems will be inevitable. By utilizing algorithm models such as machine learning, pattern recognition, and cognitive analysis, the capabilities of factory control and management systems can be enhanced, and the so-called intelligent manufacturing can be realized, enabling companies to gain better advantages in today's highly competitive environment.

The smart manufacturing process mainly revolves around smart factories, and artificial intelligence plays an important role in smart factories. The Internet of Things connects all machines and equipment together, such as controllers, sensors, and actuators. Then, AI can analyze the data uploaded by sensors, which is the core of smart manufacturing.

With the development of industrial Internet of Things applications, network and physical systems will be closely linked together. That is, the Internet of Things will connect processors and sensors at the production site, allowing robots to communicate with each other, and the work of machines and people will no longer be strictly divided. The future manufacturing system will integrate people and machines.

Digital twins play an important role. The entire process of intelligent manufacturing has a digital twin model. The system includes anything in the real world, which can be an application or an operating guide manual, etc.

In addition, there is human-machine interaction in the intelligent manufacturing system, that is, the interaction between humans and robots. There is also the use of artificial intelligence to drive and optimize products and processes. Factories need to do some predictive maintenance or predict the energy consumption of machines, etc. More and more of these functions can be realized in smart factories.

3. Prospects of smart factories in the 5G era

From 2016 to 2018, my country's 5G basic research and development testing was divided into three phases. The first phase was 5G related technology testing, the second phase was 5G technical solution verification, and the third phase was 5G system verification.

my country launched the 5G technology trial in January 2016. To ensure the smooth progress of the experiment, the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group planned and built 30 5G field stations in Huairou, Beijing. After the completion of the second phase of the 5G trial, the third phase of the trial will be launched at the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018; it is expected that the first standard version of 5G will be completed in June 2018, and the full version will be completed in September 2019, and it is expected to be commercially available on a large scale in 2020.

Facing the third phase of the experiment, in order to cooperate well and further enrich the scenarios, my country plans to carry out more experiments in six cities in the future, including combining 5G technology with the core planning of smart cities to assist in the construction of smart cities; using 5G experiments to promote dual innovation, and making full use of 5G technology in industrial Internet and intelligent manufacturing.

Smart factory is one of the important application scenarios of 5G technology. 5G network is used to seamlessly connect production equipment, and further open up design, procurement, warehousing, logistics and other links, making production more flat, customized and intelligent, thus constructing a future-oriented smart manufacturing network. Here, the editor has compiled the industry's outlook on the prospects of smart factories in the 5G era. Let us look forward to the arrival of a new era together.

1. Promote flexible manufacturing to achieve personalized production

The global population is approaching 8 billion, and the middle-class consumer group is constantly expanding, which is expected to form a huge market, and in turn have an impact on the consumption layout. Systems with customer needs and product "information" functions have become the new core of hardware product sales, and personalized customization has become a trend. In order to meet the diverse and personalized needs of different markets around the world for products, production companies need to update their existing production models, and production models based on flexible technology have become a trend. The definition of the International Production Plant Research Association is: A flexible manufacturing system is an automated production and manufacturing system that can produce any range of product families with minimal human intervention. The flexibility of the system is usually limited by the product family considered when the system is designed. The advent of flexible production has given rise to the demand for new technologies.

On the one hand, flexible production in enterprise factories places high demands on the flexible mobility and differentiated business processing capabilities of industrial robots. 5G uses its own incomparable unique advantages to promote the large-scale popularization of flexible production. The 5G network enters the factory, reducing the cost of cables between machines. While using the continuous coverage of high-reliability networks, the robot's activity area is not restricted during movement, and it can reach various locations on demand, perform uninterrupted work in various scenarios, and smoothly switch work content.

5G networks can also enable a variety of business needs with differentiated characteristics. In large factories, different production scenarios have different requirements for network service quality. The key to high-precision process links is latency, and critical tasks require network reliability and high-speed real-time analysis and processing of large traffic data. With its end-to-end slicing technology, 5G networks have different service qualities in the same core network and can be flexibly adjusted on demand. For example, the reporting of equipment status information is set to the highest service level.

On the other hand, 5G can build an all-round information ecosystem centered on connecting people and machines inside and outside the factory, ultimately enabling anyone and anything to share information with each other at any time and any place. As consumers demand personalized goods and services, the relationship between enterprises and consumers changes. Consumers will participate in the production process of enterprises. Consumers can participate in product design across regions through 5G networks and query product status information in real time.

2. Comprehensive upgrade of factory maintenance mode

In the production scenarios of large enterprises, cross-factory and cross-regional equipment maintenance, remote problem location and other scenarios are often involved. The application of 5G technology in these aspects can improve operation and maintenance efficiency and reduce costs. 5G brings not only the interconnection of all things, but also the information interaction of all things, which enables the maintenance work of future smart factories to break through the factory boundaries. Factory maintenance work can be completed by industrial robots or people and industrial robots in collaboration according to the complexity of the actual situation. In the future, each object in the factory is a terminal with a unique IP, so that the raw materials in the production process have "information" attributes. Raw materials will be automatically produced and maintained according to the "information". People have also become terminals with their own IPs. People and industrial robots enter the entire production process and exchange information with raw materials, equipment, and products with unique IPs. While industrial robots are managing the factory, people can also receive real-time information follow-up and perform interactive operations thousands of miles away.

Imagine a smart factory with 5G network coverage in the future. When an object fails, the fault is reported to the industrial robot with the highest priority and "zero" delay. In general, the industrial robot can complete the repair work without human intervention based on the experience database learned by itself. In another case, the industrial robot determines that the fault must be repaired by a human.

At this time, even if people are on the other side of the earth, they can use a simple VR and remote tactile sensing technology device to remotely control the industrial robots in the factory to reach the fault site for repairs. The industrial robots simulate human movements in real time thousands of miles away, and people at this time are like being on site to carry out construction.

5G technology enables humans and industrial robots to handle more complex scenarios with ease. For example, in the case of a multi-person collaborative repair, even experts separated by several continents can "gather" at the fault site at the first time through VR and remote tactile sensing devices. The large traffic of the 5G network can meet the massive data interaction requirements of high-definition images in VR. The extremely low latency enables people on the other side of the earth to transmit their actions to factory robots without error in the tactile sensing network, and multiple people control different robots in the factory to perform the next repair action. At the same time, with the help of the Internet of Everything, humans and industrial robots, products and raw materials are all directly connected to various relevant knowledge and experience databases. When diagnosing faults, humans and industrial robots can refer to massive experience and professional knowledge to improve the accuracy of problem location.

3. Industrial robots join the “management level”

In the production process of future smart factories, logistics, feeding, warehousing and other solutions will be judged and decided. 5G technology can provide a full cloud network platform for smart factories. Precision sensing technology acts on countless sensors to report information status in a very short time. A large amount of industrial data is collected through the 5G network, and a huge database begins to form. Industrial robots combine the supercomputing power of cloud computing to conduct autonomous learning and accurate judgment to provide the best solution. In some specific scenarios, with the help of D2D (Device-to-Device) technology under 5G, objects communicate directly with each other, further reducing the end-to-end delay of the service, and responding more quickly while the network load is diverted. The time for each link of production and manufacturing becomes shorter, the solution is faster and better, and the production and manufacturing efficiency is greatly improved.

We can imagine that in the next 10 years, 5G networks will cover every corner of the factory. Industrial robots controlled by 5G technology have already walked out of the glass cabinet and are free to shuttle in the workshop day and night to inspect and repair equipment, deliver materials, conduct quality inspections, or perform difficult production operations. Robots become middle and grassroots managers, and conduct production coordination and production decisions through information calculation and precise judgment. Only a few people are needed to undertake factory operation monitoring and senior management work. Robots become senior assistants to humans, replacing humans to complete tasks that are difficult for humans to complete, and humans and robots can coexist in the factory.

4. Allocate resources on demand

Through network slicing, 5G networks provide solutions suitable for various manufacturing scenarios, achieve real-time high efficiency and low energy consumption, and simplify deployment, laying a solid foundation for the future development of smart factories.

First, network slicing technology is used to ensure on-demand allocation of network resources to meet the network requirements in different manufacturing scenarios. Different applications have different requirements for latency, mobility, network coverage, connection density, and connection cost, which puts forward more stringent requirements on the flexible configuration of 5G networks, especially the reasonable and rapid allocation and redistribution of network resources.

As the most important feature of 5G network, the end-to-end network slicing capability based on a combination of multiple new technologies can flexibly and dynamically allocate the required network resources and release capabilities for different needs in the entire network; according to the blueprint and input parameters provided by service management, network slices are created to provide specific network characteristics. For example, extremely low latency, extremely high reliability, and extremely large bandwidth, to meet the network requirements of different application scenarios. For example, in the smart factory prototype, in order to meet the requirements of key transaction processing within the factory, key transaction slices were created to provide a low-latency, highly reliable network.

In the process of creating network slices, it is necessary to schedule resources in the infrastructure. This includes access resources, transmission resources, and cloud resources. Each infrastructure resource also has its own management function. Through network slice management, shared or isolated infrastructure resources are provided to customers according to their different needs. Due to the independence of various resources, network slice management also performs collaborative management between different resources. In the smart factory prototype, a multi-level, modular management model is demonstrated to make the management and collaboration of the entire network slice more universal, more flexible, and easier to expand.

In addition to critical business slices, 5G smart factories will also create additional mobile broadband slices and large connection slices. Different slices share the same infrastructure under the scheduling of the network slice management system, but do not interfere with each other and maintain the independence of their respective businesses.

Secondly, 5G can optimize network connections and adopt local traffic diversion to meet the requirements of low latency. The optimization of each slice for business needs is not only reflected in the different network functional characteristics, but also in the flexible deployment plan. The deployment of network function modules within the slice is very flexible and can be deployed in multiple distributed data centers according to business needs. In order to ensure the real-time nature of transaction processing, the key transaction slice in the prototype has high latency requirements. The user data plane function module is deployed in a local data center close to the end user to reduce latency as much as possible and ensure real-time control and response to production.

In addition, distributed cloud computing technology is used to flexibly deploy industrial applications and key network functions based on NFV (Network Function Virtualization) technology in local data centers or centralized data centers. The high bandwidth and low latency characteristics of 5G networks greatly improve intelligent processing capabilities by migrating to the cloud, paving the way for improving the level of intelligence.

With the connection of 5G networks, smart factories have become application platforms for various smart technologies.

In addition to the application of the above four types of technologies, smart factories are expected to be combined with a number of advanced technologies in the future to maximize resource utilization, production efficiency and economic benefits. For example, with the help of 5G high-speed networks, energy efficiency-related data from key equipment manufacturing, production processes, energy supply and other links are collected, and energy management systems are used to manage and analyze energy efficiency-related data, and fluctuations and anomalies in energy efficiency are discovered in a timely manner. Under the premise of ensuring normal production, the production process, equipment, energy supply and personnel are adjusted accordingly to improve the energy efficiency of the production process; ERP is used for raw material inventory management, including various raw materials and supplier information. When a customer order is placed, ERP automatically calculates the required raw materials, and instantly calculates the purchase time of raw materials based on supplier information to ensure that the inventory cost is minimized or even zero while meeting the delivery time.