A 5G-controlled logistics system for stabilizing retail

Project Description

5G Transport Rover for Retail

PROJECT GOALS

The project aims to improve the competitiveness of retail in rural areas against the increasingly strong online trade with the help of an autonomous logistics system. What is new is the approach that several suppliers jointly use a local autonomous logistics system to meet individual customer wishes. The goal is to gain important insights into the use of 5G technology for the practical operation of an autonomous logistics system for retail, as well as to gain insights into the economic key figures, which can then be used in a later rollout of this technology. In addition to proving technical feasibility, a particular focus is on finding a business model that is attractive to users.

INNOVATION & METHODOLOGY

The project consciously builds on a generic, open software architecture with a service-based approach. Such an open platform allows other companies and startups to develop their own applications and solutions for internationally competitive products. In the target environment, a 5G-supported, autonomous delivery system will be tested with selected users (suppliers and customers). To do this, several rovers will be deployed to perform transport/courier tasks within the urban area. The rovers move at an adjusted speed on roads and sidewalks in side streets of the urban area. The control of the rovers is carried out with the help of 5G edge computing and real-time traffic analyses. Thanks to a fast 5G connection, compute-intensive tasks (such as sensor fusion and object recognition) can be moved to a local edge cloud, which evaluates street-based cameras and other sensors, providing the local driving function of the rover with data.

OUR CONTRIBUTION

Gestalt Robotics provides a modular, open vehicle platform (delivery robot with drive, sensors, transport containers, and control computer) with an open operating system based on ROS (Robot Operating System) and flexible software interfaces for the control software.