UPV-Nokia

A team from the Mobile Communications Group (MCG) of the Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM) at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), in collaboration with Nokia Spain, has developed new digital twins to optimise port and industrial logistics with advanced 5G and 6G networks. The work is part of the ADV5G-TWINS-VISUALISATION project, funded by the UNICO programme.

The digital twins developed by the UPV and Nokia Spain team are three-dimensional virtual replicas of real-life objects such as vehicles, robots, machinery and even people.

‘These replicas are generated from data captured by cameras, RADAR/LIDAR sensors and other advanced devices, which transmit the information in real-time using next-generation 5G networks. Once captured, this data is processed to create dynamic virtual representations, which can be visualised in immersive systems such as control stations,’ explains Jaime Jesús Ruiz Alonso, Head of Research Projects at Nokia Spain.

These results are the fruit of more than four years of research. Throughout this time, the MCG-iTEAM team from the Universitat Politècnica de València and Nokia Spain has developed, among other advances, a system to capture real-time data in industrial and logistics environments, a database capable of storing and processing the captured information using artificial intelligence to optimise applications, as well as static virtual scenarios that include 3D avatars of the objects and machinery present in real environments.

The systems developed within the framework of this project have been evaluated on the UPV campus and in the Port of Valencia in tests that confirmed the great potential of these technologies for application in real situations.

‘Our work will allow operators, through digital twins, to monitor and manage processes in real-time, thus helping to improve operational efficiency in key sectors such as port logistics and Industry 4.0’, adds David Gómez-Barquero, Deputy Director of Research at iTEAM.

The ADV5G-TWINS-VISUALISATION project is part of the programmes Advancing-5G-Digital Twins for Industry 4. 0 (TSI-063000-2021-113) and Advancing-5G-Digital Twins for Ports (TSI-063000-2021-114), belonging to the UNICO 5G programme.

More information about the project: https://youtu.be/FXiNrbaAboM