Photo: Impress Watch
Nanki Shirahama Airport Co., Ltd., NEC Corporation (NEC), THK Co., Ltd., and Oriental Consultants Co., Ltd. will launch local 5G and other technologies at Nanki Shirahama Airport in Wakayama Prefecture on the 14th. It announced that it will conduct a demonstration experiment with the aim of developing a new service that aims to solve problems by utilizing it. Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. and Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. are also cooperating in this demonstration experiment. [See another image related to this article] In this demonstration experiment, six companies targeted 4.8 GHz in the airport terminal and apron (where aircraft are parked) at Nanki Shirahama Airport, and on the surrounding roads around the runway. Build a local 5G network environment using 4.9GHz fixed and portable local 5G base stations. 1) A smart maintenance service for airport staff using Microsoft HoloLens 2, which realizes mixed reality (MR), 2) A service that guides visitors to their destinations by coordinated control of multiple robots in the airport area, 3) From March 14, we will sequentially start demonstrating three services, such as a landing experience service for an original airplane painted in MR space. 1) combines HoloLens 2, NEC's patented intrusion detection technology using point cloud data, and local 5G high-capacity communication, analyzes and detects objects that exceed the limited surface such as trees, and sends them to the inspector's HoloLens 2 to prevent oversight during inspection. In addition, when inspecting road surface deterioration, etc., conventionally, an application was used to display images of past inspection points on a PC, etc., and staff visually searched for the relevant points based on GPS information. In the experiment, HoloLens 2 is used to display the previous inspection record superimposed on the real space. This makes it possible to make comparisons with the previous inspections more clearly, making it possible to shorten the work time and improve the efficiency of confirmation compared to visual inspection. It says. In 2), THK's signage robot and NEC's multi-robot coordinated control technology are used to share the area within the airport with two robots working together to guide visitors to their destination. Also, after the guidance is over, it will switch to display advertisements such as tourist information in the surrounding area using mobile digital signage. In this initiative, by acquiring images from the robot-equipped camera through a stable local 5G network, it is possible for the guidance staff to remotely operate it, so not only is it possible to respond to irregularities at the site, but also to reduce guidance work. It is said that it will lead to labor saving and telework in anticipation of the post-COVID-19 situation. The system utilizes an MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) system composed of Azure IoT Edge and NEC's "Express5800 for MEC Server", and a multiple robot coordinated control system that runs on Microsoft Azure. The last 3) is an effort to expand the contents of the "Nanki Shirahama Airport Backyard Tour", an extraordinary experience tour currently being carried out by Nanki Shirahama Airport that goes around the backyard of the airport, which is usually not accessible. Specifically, we will demonstrate a new service that provides a new sightseeing experience by utilizing the low-latency and real-time transmission characteristics of local 5G and MR technology. In the future, the six companies will advance the method of adjusting the position of the real space and the digital space in MR devices such as HoloLens 2, and apply the cooperative control function of multiple robots used in the demonstration to solutions for airports and other industries. In the future, we will continue to use local 5G to improve the attractiveness of Nanki Shirahama Airport, create a highly productive and rewarding work environment, and aim to solve the problem of increasing the number of visitors.
Cloud Watch, Kazushi Ishii