Last Thursday 26th September, the first meeting took place between the CIFP Tartanga, Mondragón Goi Eskola Politeknikoa, and our centre (with the representation of our colleagues Vicente Llarena and María Santisteban) to launch the project ‘Implementation of high capacity networks for real-time control of automated systems using immersive technologies’.
This project aims to explore the use of Virtual Reality for the real-time control and visualisation of a Digital Twin. Key to this is the study to be carried out by Somorrostro of the current capacities of ‘high-capacity networks’, both wireless 5G and wired via fiber optics.
The role of Somorrostro:
The Somorrostro Centre plays a key role in this project, focusing on analysing the use of high-capacity networks in industrial environments. Its aim is to study how these technologies can optimise communication and control of automated systems, ensuring low latency and reliable connections, essential factors in IoT-based industrial scenarios. The Somorrostro centre will carry out a detailed comparison between the performance of fiber optics and 5G for application in the industrial environment. It will also evaluate the behaviour of the public network connecting the different centres involved, analysing the exchange of data in real time between the physical model of an automated process and its digital twin, located in different parts of the Basque Country.
This project is of great relevance to the industrial sector, as the interconnection and remote control of machinery and processes over high-performance networks is a growing need. 5G technologies offer crucial advantages such as minimum latencies of up to 1 millisecond and the ability to manage multiple devices simultaneously, which improves efficiency and safety in communication between machines and automated processes. Applying these innovations to the industrial environment has great potential to reduce the time and cost of system commissioning (virtual commissioning), facilitate remote technical assistance and enable remote expert control of processes, among other advantages.
In short, this project focuses especially on improving the interconnection and real-time control of automated systems in industrial environments, fundamental pillars of what is known as the Smart Factory.