SoftBank and Sumitomo Electric have been conducting joint demonstrations to realize 5G-based smart factories since 2019

Japanese companies SoftBank and Sumitomo Electric announced plans to collaborate with the aim of realizing smart factories using 5G technology, the companies said in a release.

As part of the collaboration, industrial 5G terminals currently under development by Sumitomo Electric will be offered in 2024 to support a 5G-managed service for companies that telecom operator SoftBank launched earlier this year.

Also, the partners said, they will promote digital transformation of production sites by using artificial intelligence-based video compression and analysis solutions, which are also derived from Sumitomo Electric’s proprietary technology.

Through these collaborative efforts, Sumitomo Electric said it will seek to improve productivity at its own manufacturing facilities.

SoftBank’s “Private 5G” service offers customized 5G networks to meet the various needs of companies and local governments. The service, which is offered by using public 5G equipment and frequencies, allocates optimal network resources depending on customers’ usage by using network slicing which is a feature of 5G standalone (5G SA) commercial networks. “It is linked to SoftBank’s closed connection service to realize high-quality and secure communication. SoftBank will start offering Private 5G by the end of fiscal year 2023. With Private 5G, exclusive base stations and equipment will be installed on the premises of each customer to offer an advanced private network environment,” the companies said.

“The industrial 5G terminals manufactured by Sumitomo Electric have an interface to connect with various types of sensors, equipment, and cameras in factories. They also support 5G millimeter waves. The dustproof and waterproof devices can be used in factories and outdoors where the environmental conditions are severe. They also use a container-based virtualization platform for edge processing, making it easy to install and implement applications developed on a different operating system from that of the 5G terminals. SoftBank’s Private 5G will realize the first commercial deployment of Sumitomo Electric’s industrial 5G terminals,” the partners added.

SoftBank and Sumitomo Electric have been conducting joint demonstrations related to 5G-based smart factories since 2019. “In a trial in 2022, the movement of workers was captured using a 4K camera installed in a factory. The ultra-high-definition video was compressed by AI-based video processing (AVP), Sumitomo Electric’s proprietary video compression technology, and was transmitted to a cloud server via SoftBank’s 5G network to conduct AI-based video analysis. The companies said that the use of AVP reduced the amount of data by 88% compared to conventional compression methods, achieving efficient video transmission. “Previously, distant workers whose image size was small could not be detected. The use of video captured by an ultra-high-definition 4K camera improved the accuracy of AI-based video analysis. The worker detection rate in the video improved from 89% to 100%,” they added.

SoftBank and Sumitomo Electric also highlighted that the use of this technology made it possible to quickly identify tasks that took more time than planned, implement countermeasures and improve productivity. The technology is also expected to improve safety by monitoring workers and their pathways and through its application for the detection of hazardous behavior.