Efficiency in intralogistics: AMRs and industrial 5G

How industrial 5G enhances AMR applications and performance.

A new day is dawning in the Fourth Industrial Revolution as the 5G mobile wireless standard brings long-awaited capabilities to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) too are reaping the rewards of the next-generation high-speed network.

AMRs are already often deployed where there is a need for the independent, automated and highly reliable performance of recurrent transport assignments. Acting in concert with sensors, cameras and sophisticated software, they deliver efficient material flows in production and automate cost-efficient internal logistical processes.

This triumphal march of AMRs in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is no coincidence: short product lifecycles, complex workflows and tight margins are all forcing companies to accelerate manufacturing processes while guaranteeing high product quality. Yet with specialist labour in short supply, squaring this circle often presents a paradoxical challenge indeed. At the same time, another trend is also driving changes in the digitalisation arena: private and corporate consumers’ demands for individualised products and tailor-made services.

Greater efficiency, lower costs

All these developments point in the same direction: companies must leverage process innovations to become more efficient and more profitable if they want to stay competitive. Which is where the high-speed 5G network comes into play. In industrial contexts (industrial 5G), the fifth-generation mobile wireless standard will trigger a veritable technological revolution as production equipment and internal logistical processes become significantly more flexible, autonomous and efficient — accompanied above all by superior performance. Business-critical and time-critical AMR scenarios will thus become viable in practice and smart factories a present reality.

Another important market trend is the use of a digital twin, which frequently requires the exchange of large amounts of data in real time to a cloud or edge server, increasing the need for secure real-time communication with high bandwidth as well. With the use of wireless technology, the traditional Automation Pyramid can be reduced, as the ERP layer moves to the cloud, whereas the MES/WMS and control layers move to the edge.

5G means more real-time and secure communication, higher speeds, and increased capacity, which is why companies can create an alternative to cabling and take advantage of the flexibility that wireless connections provide. 5G technology enables the operator to prioritise the network, so that part of the network capacity (a slice) can be reserved for one user, who can be guaranteed a certain service quality.

AMRs in action in manufacturing and logistics sites

Currently, Wi-Fi is used to handle communication between robotic control systems and AMRs, and today’s AMRs work well with Wi-Fi.

In the same way that 5G has progressed from 4G, Wi-Fi is also still being developed and updated via different standards. More than just faster speeds, each new revision of Wi-Fi gets more features and better security. The most common Wi-Fi standard is currently Wi-Fi 5, but Wi-Fi 6 is already available and used widely, and Wi-Fi 7 is being developed. Wi-Fi 6 offers at least four times faster speed than Wi-Fi 5 under certain conditions, but it also brings improvements in efficiency and capacity designed to keep up with the increasing number of internet-connected wireless devices, like AMRs. So, Wi-Fi is still (and will be) for many years ahead, a valid and good option for AMRs to work efficiently, especially because many AMRs still do not use the full capabilities of the existing Wi-Fi standards.

There are, however, many reasons why local onsite 5G connectivity will improve the performance of AMRs. In some cases, AMRs are deployed over all-purpose Wi-Fi infrastructures that share resources with other users, which limits the network performance. Other newer AMR capabilities increase the need for more bandwidth and better response times; for example, deeper application automation from semi- to fully automated intralogistics processes and interoperability between different AMR systems.

As Wi-Fi networks become loaded, and in some cases overloaded, when they are used for too many different purposes, they may remain sufficient for non-critical applications, but real-time functionality can suffer. Some users have to confront Wi-Fi challenges like high latency, insufficient bandwidth, limited coverage, insufficient cybersecurity or insufficient reliability. Wireless connectivity was designed primarily for office and home use, but its performance can deteriorate when the number of users increases when sharing the same channel. The Fourth Industrial Revolution — complete with seamless value and supply chains, the widespread sensor-based monitoring of production equipment, robots that interact with each other and innovations in the cloud — needs superior communication performance. All mobile robots can therefore benefit from 5G. When AMR fleets increase in size and functionality, they typically will require a dedicated network solution for these mission-critical applications.

High speeds for real-time computing

For the first time in industrial history, data rates of up to 10 Gb/s now enable information to be transmitted almost in real time, providing powerful support for critical applications. Coupled with extremely low latency of just a millisecond, this acceleration lays the foundation for a modern ecosystem that guarantees full connectivity with smart devices and machines. As such, it opens the door to completely new IIoT applications. The ability to transmit data instantly makes warehouse and production processes more efficient while also reducing defects and scrap, for example.

A typical example of the benefits of real-time communication in logistics is the increased focus on interoperability between AMRs from different vendors and other types of automated vehicles. Direct, latency-free communication facilitates the possibility to have cloud-based interfleets that connect different AMRs and control the traffic efficiently. Another benefit is that, for the first time, 5G-connected AMRs can now draw on cloud-based AI platforms to make faster decisions and execute tasks more efficiently. In return, the companies that deploy them enjoy a better quality of order picking and punctual order handling. The lead times needed to reconfigure production, modify layouts and make structural conversions can likewise be slashed.

Conclusion

One thing is for sure: tight margins, fierce competition, labour shortage and changing customer demands are putting production and logistics companies under high competitive pressure. Coupled with the new-generation networks, AMRs will facilitate the design of more efficient processes but also allow completely new business processes to be defined.

As the Industrial IoT comes of age and new initiatives progress, it is natural for users to implement advanced data gathering and new advanced fleet management tasks into their AMRs. For industrial operations, 5G private wireless networks deliver fast data rates and low latency to meet the needs of current and future AMR deployments.

Image credit: iStock.com/janiecbros