IBM, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore, local telco M1 Limited (M1) and Samsung announced Singapore’s first 5G Industry 4.0 trial, to foster the potential of 5G for factories and generate new opportunities for Singapore’s economy amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. The project aims to develop insights and showcase benefits of 5G in Industry 4.0.
IBM will implement and test Industry 4.0 use cases that will leverage IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI), Internet-of-Things (IoT), edge, and augmented reality technologies, and network architecture built on IBM systems using open solutions infrastructure from Red Hat. Samsung will provide mobile and network technologies and M1 will be the 5G telco provider.
The advantages of the 5G technology, such as faster data transfer and response times could enable significant improvements to manufacturing processes in Singapore, particularly if they are combined with other Industry 4.0 solutions such as AI. The project will test 5G-enabled use cases focusing on three main areas:
Automated visual inspection using AI for image recognition and video analytics
Improved equipment monitoring and predictive maintenance using AI-enabled acoustic insights
Assembly and debugging using augmented reality to improve productivity and quality
Solutions developed will be featured at IBM’s Industry 4.0 Studio 5G Solutions Showcase. The IBM Industry 4.0 Studio will be launched in June and located at Changi Business Park.
The trial at the Industry 4.0 Studio will commence in Q2, 2020 and will be conducted at IBM Singapore’s Centre of Competency (CoC) for Smart Factory Operating Model for sharing of ideas and best practices. Solutions developed here could be ultimately rolled out to other IBM Manufacturing sites, globally. They could be applied to production, service, quality control, and testing across a broad range of industries.
This trial is in line with Singapore’s plan to deploy at least two nationwide networks which will provide coverage to at least 50% of the country by the end of 2022 and achieve nationwide coverage by 2025. A SGD 40 million (USD 30 million) fund has been announced to test 5G applications in ports, transport, estates, factories, government and consumer applications, while some of the funding will also be directed at R&D to secure 5G networks.
(Source: Infocomm Media Development Authority, Singapore)
