The 5G project, which required the investment of over £10 million ($12.4 million), was completed at the end of March

The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) carried out a demonstration of what it claims to be U.K.’s first, fully operational 5G Standalone (5G SA) testbed.

“The 5G FoF project has successfully delivered the largest manufacturing testbed in the U.K., with 5G standalone capability, proven working 5G use cases and developed native 5G devices,” said Aparajithan Sivanathan, project lead for the 5G Factory of the Future program and head of digital technology at AMRC North West.

“We have also created a business model that will sustain the testbed beyond the end of the project. 5G is going to be the future and we’re now thinking about the next phase,” he added.

The project, which required the investment of over £10 million ($12.4 million), was completed at the end of March. It was partially funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – as part of its £200m investment in its 5G Testbed and Trials program. It also received funding from industry.

The delivery of the project, launched in December 2020, was managed by a consortium of industrial and academic leaders from the U.K. manufacturing and telecommunications sectors. AMRC acted as the project lead, while BAE Systems, Digital Catapult, Fuuse, IBM, aql and MTT participated in the project.

Steph Leaver, technology development engineer for BAE Systems Air, said: “The project has shown that 5G is a key enabler in creating a more adaptable manufacturing ecosystem. We know that as more digital technology is adoptedday-to-day activities, data volumes are going to scale up exponentially.”

“5G will allow flexible reconfiguration and rapid stand-up of new operational hardware, as well as enabling existing machines or facilities to be retrofitted with digital technologies, increasing our manufacturing efficiency and flexibility,” Leaver said.

Kostas Katsaros, lead 5G technologist at Digital Catapult, said that 5G technology has the ability to transform manufacturing by enabling faster and more reliable communication between machines, people and systems.

“As the technical design authority for the project, we were able to offer private cellular network deployment and integration capability for manufacturing and industrial domains, enabling early experimentation for specific use cases, a critical part of showcasing the potential of 5G technology in an industrial environment to drive value, quickly build capability and deliver tangible impact,” Katsaros said.