KDDI in partnership with NEC completed a field experiment to remotely control a construction machinery using a 5G system and 4K 3D monitoring in Tokyo.
This can help to relieve the risk of injury when conducting hazardous operations, such as disaster recovery efforts, where image-based remote control of construction machinery is often required, without the need for operators to be physically on board, said NEC.
However, since the movement of remotely operated construction machinery is slower than when operated manually onboard, it has been reported that work efficiency is reduced by 40 to 50% when compared to onboard operations. This is primarily because remote operations must rely on images from cameras installed on the construction machinery and in overhead areas.
By realizing transmission of high-resolution images, which had been difficult to achieve with previous mobile communications systems, the experiment succeeded in increasing the efficiency of remote operator movements by vastly increasing the amount of information provided to them, said NEC. NEC claims that compared with previous remote operations, the workload efficiency improved 15 to 25%.
Conducted at Obayashi's Tokyo Machinery Plant, a total of five cameras – two high-resolution 4K cameras, one 2K omnidirectional camera and two 2K overhead cameras – were installed in order to observe and operate construction machinery. Images from these cameras were transmitted to the remote operations room by beamforming using a massive-element active antenna system, supporting a 28 GHz band.
