How 5G is revolutionizing the industry of the future?

Improving the workforce working conditions

The transformation of our factories also has repercussions on human resources. The job done by our workforce is changing with the installation of robots that help eliminate mentally and physically exhausting tasks, redeploying them in more interesting and higher-added-value jobs.

Let’s look at a real-world example. A few years ago, on an assembly line of electronics components, the components had to be manually counted using a crank system. It was a full-time job with a high turnover rate. By installing a robot that counts and classifies the components when they arrive and then another that routes them onto the production lines, three employees can be reassigned from the production line, which means production can be increased whilst maintaining the same number of employees.

5G in conjunction with augmented reality makes it possible to develop new and more-agile training methods. Wearing these special goggles, technicians can see an overlaid image of the position or the missing components to be assembled. In addition, ensuring that your employees are well trained also reduces the risk of workplace accidents.

Thanks to 5G and the parallel development of smart fabrics, we can contemplate a future where workers’ overalls will enable data about their state of health to be uploaded in real time and, in doing so, proactively anticipate the needs of workers on production lines.

Lastly, with its low latency and high speed, 5G enables live access to experts. The growth of video calling in the economy skyrocketed during the various lockdowns, from video conference medical appointments with your GP to after-sales services. Video calls have also arrived in factories: the use of video calls allows experts to act quickly, offer an initial prognosis and give live advice all while staying at their workplace or home. 5G also enables an expert to work on a machine in real time and carry out work on an actual production line remotely.

Industrial 5G has the potential to revolutionize the way of working at production facilities.

For several years now there has been talk of Smart Cities and Smart Territories, but what lies behind these terms? With the notion of Smart Cities, physical sensors are associated with digital environments, enabling data to be fed back and processed, and offer concrete actions – sometimes in real time – to network administrators. Smart Territories are based on the same principle, but include the towns, cities and regions around them in order to optimize the networks that connect them.

And this is where 5G comes into its own.

Its many benefits enable the development of new solutions to optimize and manage traffic, water and electricity networks.

5G Supporting Mobility

Mobility is one of the priorities for metropolitan areas and regions. Well-managed mobility has many positive spillovers for both users and the environment. The possibility of improving traffic flow, the ability to integrate new forms of mobility (bicycles, scooters, etc.) into existing systems and the emergence of autonomous public transport are solutions made possible, amongst other things, by 5G technology.

In this context, LACROIX has joined the consortium led by WaltR – a specialist in air quality monitoring and stimulating pro-environmental behaviors – and ALSATIS – an architect and operator of 4/5G public-initiative networks – around the 5GREEN MOBILITY project, which aims to deploy a set of air quality diagnostic devices capable of activating different traffic regulation strategies.

5G promises communications between physical and embedded sensors, thereby enabling data exchange between a traffic light, a bus and a tram, for example. This type of connection has the capacity to improve traffic flow and optimize user journeys whatever their choice of mobility.

LACROIX’ City activity and LACROIX’ Innovation Lab are trialling Smart Crosswalk, a connected solution comprising a set of sensors and integrated artificial intelligence software all connected to a traffic light controller. Thanks to the data generated from these sensors and processed locally via our embedded algorithms, the Smart Crosswalk solution makes it possible to gather statistics on the profile of users driving around an intersection and becomes a decision-making tool: traffic flow can thus be improved, encouraging the use of soft mobility, for example. It is a solution that meets the anonymity requirements of the GDPR and has quick and easy implementation in terms of works and installation.