Vertical Divider
5G to Enable Robots to be Included w/Autonomous Cars, Trucks, Exoskeletons, Farmers
Each day, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile bombard us with ads on the benefits of using 5G, but the reality is that the most popular apps, email, messaging, web access, uploading and downloading feel no different than using 4G, while the low latency required for AR is still years away. So the networks are asking us to wait for autonomy to get the true benefits of 5G as the potential in autonomous devices is only beginning to reveal itself. Questions about governance, regulations, development, control, testing and certifications, are pressing issues, but the two most important are potential risks and ethics. Autonomous devices require a redefinition of the relationship between devices and humans and the cultural impact can’t be diminished. Like it or not, the autonomy age has arrived. As autonomous devices gain traction and start popping up in our daily lives, we need to take the time to learn what that means for us and what the proper direction is that we should take with such a colossal revolution already standing at our doors.
Although it’s likely that personal robots are years away, Verizon took the stage at MWC to say 5G was all about enabling a world of autonomous robots that can communicate with each other. Sharing the MWC stage with two robots—one on legs, one on wheels—Verizon Chief Strategy Officer Rima Qureshi said Verizon's 5G network will let fleets of robots work together in a way we just dreamed about.
"When you have more than one robot on the floor you have a problem," Qureshi said. "Most robots from the same manufacturer can't even talk to one another. This inability to exchange information limits the potential of robots." After letting the robots talk to each other, the next step is to move sensors and processing from the individual robots to the network and environment itself, she said. That lets the robots become lighter and less expensive, as they can rely on information contributed by other sensors and can share central processing. "We believe we will also be able to make robot technology more affordable and accessible," she said. All of this is enabled by a Verizon product the company calls multi-access edge computing (MEC), which was until recently called mobile edge computing. MEC puts computing capabilities at the hubs of semi-local networks, rather than in individual devices or at faraway data centers. "Multi-access edge computing, or MEC, brings the capacity and power of the cloud to the edge," Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said in a virtual appearance at the MWC keynote. Qureshi nodded lightly at concerns that more powerful robots would replace human workers. "This is in the name of augmenting the highest capacities of technology, not replacing them," Qureshi said. What Qureshi and Vestberg didn't do is explain why 5G, specifically, is needed for these abilities. Qureshi described emergency-response drones that can be remotely piloted and monitored through a smart network to respond to wildfires, for instance. Those drones are being run over 4G networks right now, and the 20-30ms latencies of 4G networks, when combined with the drones' own sensors, are just fine for this task. Similarly, while low latency or network slicing may play a role in Verizon's robot scenario, the speakers didn't explain on why private LTE or Wi-Fi 6E wouldn't be just as good as 5G for its "mobile edge compute" scenario.
Each day, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile bombard us with ads on the benefits of using 5G, but the reality is that the most popular apps, email, messaging, web access, uploading and downloading feel no different than using 4G, while the low latency required for AR is still years away. So the networks are asking us to wait for autonomy to get the true benefits of 5G as the potential in autonomous devices is only beginning to reveal itself. Questions about governance, regulations, development, control, testing and certifications, are pressing issues, but the two most important are potential risks and ethics. Autonomous devices require a redefinition of the relationship between devices and humans and the cultural impact can’t be diminished. Like it or not, the autonomy age has arrived. As autonomous devices gain traction and start popping up in our daily lives, we need to take the time to learn what that means for us and what the proper direction is that we should take with such a colossal revolution already standing at our doors.
Although it’s likely that personal robots are years away, Verizon took the stage at MWC to say 5G was all about enabling a world of autonomous robots that can communicate with each other. Sharing the MWC stage with two robots—one on legs, one on wheels—Verizon Chief Strategy Officer Rima Qureshi said Verizon's 5G network will let fleets of robots work together in a way we just dreamed about.
"When you have more than one robot on the floor you have a problem," Qureshi said. "Most robots from the same manufacturer can't even talk to one another. This inability to exchange information limits the potential of robots." After letting the robots talk to each other, the next step is to move sensors and processing from the individual robots to the network and environment itself, she said. That lets the robots become lighter and less expensive, as they can rely on information contributed by other sensors and can share central processing. "We believe we will also be able to make robot technology more affordable and accessible," she said. All of this is enabled by a Verizon product the company calls multi-access edge computing (MEC), which was until recently called mobile edge computing. MEC puts computing capabilities at the hubs of semi-local networks, rather than in individual devices or at faraway data centers. "Multi-access edge computing, or MEC, brings the capacity and power of the cloud to the edge," Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said in a virtual appearance at the MWC keynote. Qureshi nodded lightly at concerns that more powerful robots would replace human workers. "This is in the name of augmenting the highest capacities of technology, not replacing them," Qureshi said. What Qureshi and Vestberg didn't do is explain why 5G, specifically, is needed for these abilities. Qureshi described emergency-response drones that can be remotely piloted and monitored through a smart network to respond to wildfires, for instance. Those drones are being run over 4G networks right now, and the 20-30ms latencies of 4G networks, when combined with the drones' own sensors, are just fine for this task. Similarly, while low latency or network slicing may play a role in Verizon's robot scenario, the speakers didn't explain on why private LTE or Wi-Fi 6E wouldn't be just as good as 5G for its "mobile edge compute" scenario.
Contact Us
|
Barry Young
|