Deployment and Evaluation of an Industry 4.0 Use Case over 5G

Abstract

The arrival of 5G paves the way for the deployment of the so-called Industry 4.0, which is a new paradigm devoted to the digital transformation of manufacturing and factory production. Because of the resources required to perform this transformation, the importance of field trials and experimentation cannot be overstated, both to support the design of novel methodologies and to validate these designs. In this article, we leverage the 5G EVE end-to-end open platform to design and validate a novel operation approach for automated guided vehicles (AGVs). This use case consists of the placement of the intelligence that controls the AGV in a remote entity. This movement could improve and simplify the operation of industrial processes. The customizability of the 5G validation platform proves fundamental to evaluate the solution under different deployment architectures and to assess its performance under hazardous radio conditions. Our results demonstrate the ability of 5G to handle latency-constrained use cases with superior performance compared to the current state-of-the-art mobile technology.