A new research facility to better equip the ‘factories of the future’ has opened at Confirm, the SFI Smart Manufacturing research centre based at University of Limerick.
Confirm has today announced the successful deployment of Ireland’s first manufacturing-focused Future Wireless Innovation Test-Bed facility.
The Future Wireless Innovation Test-Bed is located at the Confirm Centre for Smart Manufacturing, headquartered within the University of Limerick’s Digital District, which is one of the most advanced purpose-built manufacturing research facilities in the world.
The new facility was designed and deployed under the leadership of Dr Eoin O’Connell, a Funded Investigator in Confirm, to explore ideas and technologies for improving manufacturing environments towards creating smarter factories by utilising the latest wireless technologies such as 5G, 6G and Wifi6.
“It is now clear that the manufacturing sector will ultimately be driven by the capacity and scalability of high-speed networks,” said Dr O’Connell.
“The Future Wireless Innovation Test-Bed at Confirm will enable cutting edge research to deliver the breakthroughs needed for the factory of the future,” he added.
Planning and executing the Innovation Test-Bed was a collaborative effort between Confirm and Netmore. The Innovation Test-Bed was designed by firstly looking at the challenges manufacturing companies face that can benefit from enabling technologies such as 5G, by specifically focussing on test use cases for real-world issues like industrial IoT, robotics and the deployment of mixed reality in manufacturing, Director of Confirm Professor Conor McCarthy explained.
“Wireless communication between products, machines, production systems and supply chains form a major part of our digital thread strategy, designed to achieve mass customisation and enable re-configurability in manufacturing plants and associated digital supply chains,” Professor McCarthy said, adding that Confirm was “delighted” launch the new facility.
Early tests at the facility have included a practical study undertaken in December 2020 where an Autonomous Intelligent Vehicle (AIV) was controlled on a 5G network at Confirm, believed to be the first reported case of such 5G wireless robotic control in Ireland. The initial results demonstrate that the integration of 5G as a wireless signaling system within a manufacturing environment is both very promising from an accuracy standpoint and also now a more viable option.
The Innovation Test-Bed promises fast connectivity, more bandwidth and low latency with support for tens of thousands of devices in a small location, all of which are attractive prospects to manufacturing facilities.
Netmore CEO Ove Anebygd said the company was “very pleased” to be collaborating with Confirm as a supplier of 5G infrastructure for its operations in Smart Manufacturing.
“The fact that Netmore’s 5G technology is selected for the Innovation Test-Bed at Confirm is proof that our services and our technology are suitable in the best possible way for environments that place high demands on capacity, reliability and security. We look forward to a long and successful collaboration with Confirm Smart Manufacturing.”