BT this week announced that it is working with the Worcestershire 5G Testbed (W5G) as its lead technology partner to accelerate its vision of smart manufacturing delivered through the UK’s first live 5G factory installation.
Building on its role in the development of the W5G Testbed over the last two years, BT is providing its expertise across 5G Private Networks, wearable devices, IoT, data analytics and mobile edge computing. The combination of these technologies will make intelligent, dynamic and fully automated manufacturing processes a reality.
BT will enable W5G to accelerate through the next phase of its development, moving it to a sustainable, scalable footing by expanding its scope to include new industry 4.0 enabled use cases. These include enabling local engineering company Worcester Bosch, and others, to boost productivity by using autonomous robots to transport products and materials, for example. The installation of collision detection sensors connected over the 5G Private Network will also help to ensure health and safety on the factory floor.
The UK’s first 5G factory installation has been switched on at the Worcestershire 5G Testbed, with Worcester Bosch working with BT and W5G to explore ways of boosting productivity through robotics, IoT, big data analytics and augmented reality. These technologies are running over the live Private 5G Network and edge computing infrastructure which is now being fully managed by BT.
Gerry McQuade, CEO of BT's Enterprise Business
This is only possible by harnessing 5G Private Networks, IoT, data analytics and mobile edge computing. BT’s role is in making these technologies work in perfect harmony to gather and interpret the vast volumes of data generated by connected machines and turning this into real-time and actionable insight.
