Periodic Reporting for period 2 - 5G-Blueprint (Next generation connectivity for enhanced, safe & efficient transport & logistics)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2023-12-31
5G-Blueprint envisions to design and validate a technical architecture, business and governance model for uninterrupted cross-border teleoperated transport based on 5G connectivity. 5G-Blueprint will explore and define:
- The economics of 5G tools in cross border transport & logistics as well as passenger transport: bringing CAPEX and OPEX into view, both on the supply (telecom) side and on the demand (transport & logistics) side for transformation of current business practices as well as new value propositions.
- The Governance issues and solutions pertaining to responsibilities and accountability within the value chain dependent on cross border connectivity and seamless services relating to the Dutch & Belgian regulatory framework (telecommunications, traffic and CAM experimentation laws, contracts, value chain management).
- Tactical and operational (pre-) conditions that need to be in place to get full value of 5G tooled transport & logistics. This includes implementing use cases that increase cooperative awareness to guarantee safe and responsible teleoperated transport
- Preparing and piloting teleoperated and telemonitored transport on roadways and waterways to alleviate the increasing shortage of manpower and bring transport and logistics on a higher level of efficiency through data sharing in the supply chain and use of AI
- Exploring the possibilities of increasing the volume of freight being transported during the night where excess physical infrastructure capacity is abundant; the lowering of personnel costs would make this feasible on a cost-effective basis
- Teleoperation will be enabled by the following 5G qualities, such as low latency, reliable connectivity and high bandwidth
The project’s outcome will be the blueprint for operational pan-European deployment of teleoperated transport solutions in the logistics sector and beyond.
- The economics of 5G tools in cross border transport & logistics as well as passenger transport: bringing CAPEX and OPEX into view, both on the supply (telecom) side and on the demand (transport & logistics) side for transformation of current business practices as well as new value propositions.
- The Governance issues and solutions pertaining to responsibilities and accountability within the value chain dependent on cross border connectivity and seamless services relating to the Dutch & Belgian regulatory framework (telecommunications, traffic and CAM experimentation laws, contracts, value chain management).
- Tactical and operational (pre-) conditions that need to be in place to get full value of 5G tooled transport & logistics. This includes implementing use cases that increase cooperative awareness to guarantee safe and responsible teleoperated transport
- Preparing and piloting teleoperated and telemonitored transport on roadways and waterways to alleviate the increasing shortage of manpower and bring transport and logistics on a higher level of efficiency through data sharing in the supply chain and use of AI
- Exploring the possibilities of increasing the volume of freight being transported during the night where excess physical infrastructure capacity is abundant; the lowering of personnel costs would make this feasible on a cost-effective basis
- Teleoperation will be enabled by the following 5G qualities, such as low latency, reliable connectivity and high bandwidth
The project’s outcome will be the blueprint for operational pan-European deployment of teleoperated transport solutions in the logistics sector and beyond.
During this final implementation phase of the project, 5G-Blueprint continued its significant progress towards achieving successfully all the planned objectives and impacts. The main objective of the project is “to design and validate a technical architecture, business and governance models for uninterrupted cross-border teleoperated transport based on 5G connectivity”.
This report summarizes the project work and achievements from the month M19 to M40 (March - 2022 to December 2023).
There were no major challenges in the last part of the project that could not be properly managed, and the risks that did materialise were fully managed by the mitigating actions. In addition, all deliverables were submitted with minor delays, and all milestones were reached as planned. All Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were also achieved, and no major deviations were observed regarding the performed activities and consumed resources. And finally, a final showcase event was successfully organized in November 2023 where all the different project results were presented to a broad audience (149 attendees).
Summary of the major achievements:
-Technical design, implementation and validation of novel seamless roaming solution. Introduction of this novel solution in 3GPP standardization activities.
-Governance related assessment done of seamless roaming
-Dual SIM alternative solution for seamless roaming designed, implemented, validated and positioned in relation to the network-based solution that was also developed in this project.
-Novel dynamic technology selection approach for hybrid C-V2X communication realized
-Finished the deployment of the cross-border pilot site, and finetuned the final architecture with more emphasis on the 5G related components.
-Evolved from minimum viable platform to final version for all use cases and enabling functions (for the enabling functions focusing on the network related aspects, and respecting agreed deadline of august 2022). These use cases included teleoperated barge, teleoperated and autonomously docking truck-trailer combination, teleoperated skid-steer, teleoperated and platooning passenger cars
-Finished all the network, use case and enabling functions evaluations that were still due at the three different pilot sites
-Used the evaluation results + inputs created by internal workshops to perform the techno-economic analysis, validate the business models and define our blueprint containg governance models and recommendations.
-Demonstrated this all in a large final showcase event in November 2023 that was well received by all its 149 visitors
-Disseminated project results in a large number of publications and active participation in several relevant events.
This report summarizes the project work and achievements from the month M19 to M40 (March - 2022 to December 2023).
There were no major challenges in the last part of the project that could not be properly managed, and the risks that did materialise were fully managed by the mitigating actions. In addition, all deliverables were submitted with minor delays, and all milestones were reached as planned. All Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were also achieved, and no major deviations were observed regarding the performed activities and consumed resources. And finally, a final showcase event was successfully organized in November 2023 where all the different project results were presented to a broad audience (149 attendees).
Summary of the major achievements:
-Technical design, implementation and validation of novel seamless roaming solution. Introduction of this novel solution in 3GPP standardization activities.
-Governance related assessment done of seamless roaming
-Dual SIM alternative solution for seamless roaming designed, implemented, validated and positioned in relation to the network-based solution that was also developed in this project.
-Novel dynamic technology selection approach for hybrid C-V2X communication realized
-Finished the deployment of the cross-border pilot site, and finetuned the final architecture with more emphasis on the 5G related components.
-Evolved from minimum viable platform to final version for all use cases and enabling functions (for the enabling functions focusing on the network related aspects, and respecting agreed deadline of august 2022). These use cases included teleoperated barge, teleoperated and autonomously docking truck-trailer combination, teleoperated skid-steer, teleoperated and platooning passenger cars
-Finished all the network, use case and enabling functions evaluations that were still due at the three different pilot sites
-Used the evaluation results + inputs created by internal workshops to perform the techno-economic analysis, validate the business models and define our blueprint containg governance models and recommendations.
-Demonstrated this all in a large final showcase event in November 2023 that was well received by all its 149 visitors
-Disseminated project results in a large number of publications and active participation in several relevant events.
Two EU projects can be considered as predecessors of 5G-Blueprint: 5G-Mobix and 5GCroCo. Both focus on the usage of teleoperation for remote manoeuvring of an autonomous vehicle that got stranded in a challenging traffic situation at low speed 8-20 km/h and the developed solutions explore both indirect control and direct control of teleoperation. 5G-Blueprint further advance the SOTA for direct control. The goal is to allow remote operators to actually drive instead of manoeuvre vehicles on public roads. This imposes more stringent requirements on the 5G network, but also on the application level since for instance driving dynamics become more important. The focus is entirely on the teleoperation concept, which is not only developed further as a technique, but also the entire needed ecosystem of other applications that would go with it in an actual deployment is realized for the first time. The EFs combine AI and/or C-ITS foundations with the teleoperation domain, while the UCs automated driver-in-loop-docking and CACC based platooning combine automation techniques with teleoperation to further strengthen the teleoperation business case.
In terms of impact, as a result of 5G-Blueprint, there will be a clear hands-on understanding of the technical feasibility of an international teleoperated transport solution based on 5G connectivity and the best business model and governance model would be for deploying this concept on a large scale across Europe. Insights that will be broadly disseminated, and hence will reach beyond the borders of the involved project consortium. The project will make clear in which operational design domains the paradigm of taking the human driver out of the vehicle while not yet replacing it by a machine is feasible from a technical, business and governance perspective. These results will hence pave the way for a more realistic and hence feasible transition towards automated mobility, by leveraging on the strength of combining teleoperation and automation as two complementary paradigms, instead of positioning teleoperation only as the fallback of automation
In terms of impact, as a result of 5G-Blueprint, there will be a clear hands-on understanding of the technical feasibility of an international teleoperated transport solution based on 5G connectivity and the best business model and governance model would be for deploying this concept on a large scale across Europe. Insights that will be broadly disseminated, and hence will reach beyond the borders of the involved project consortium. The project will make clear in which operational design domains the paradigm of taking the human driver out of the vehicle while not yet replacing it by a machine is feasible from a technical, business and governance perspective. These results will hence pave the way for a more realistic and hence feasible transition towards automated mobility, by leveraging on the strength of combining teleoperation and automation as two complementary paradigms, instead of positioning teleoperation only as the fallback of automation