Building a 5G Digital Twin Platform Leveraging IoT and AR Technologies
Development of a remote tractor diagnostic service as a first use case
Expanding business opportunities from farms to cities and factories

On the 25th, LG Uplus and PTC signed a strategic business agreement to build a 5G-based digital twin platform.

Digital twins, selected by Gartner as one of the top 10 strategic technologies of the year, replicate real-world objects in the virtual world. This technology allows for effective equipment management by monitoring the condition of equipment in the virtual world and identifying maintenance and repair times.

Through this business agreement, the two companies plan to build a digital twin platform by integrating PTC's IoT and AR technologies with LG U+'s 5G network-based technology. Based on this platform, they will develop a "tractor remote diagnosis" service for smart farms. Starting with agriculture, they plan to explore new business opportunities in areas such as smart factories and smart cities.

The two companies will install IoT sensors on tractors to collect and analyze data on ▲vehicle, consumables, location, and engine information ▲real-time operation data ▲operation, maintenance, and repair history. Through this, customers can be notified immediately when parts break down or malfunction, and can check in advance when parts and consumables need to be replaced.

By implementing tractor parts in AR, if an anomaly is detected, the location and details can be intuitively confirmed on a smartphone app. AR also allows users to see how to replace tractor parts and consumables, allowing them to easily replace parts themselves.

Kim Sang-geon, Executive Director of Regional Sales at PTC Korea, said, “The scope of application of digital twin technology, which merges the physical world and digital information, is rapidly expanding beyond the industrial market,” and “We plan to work closely with LG U+ to maximize agricultural productivity by utilizing data and present innovative cases based on new value-added services.”

“Since the commercialization of 5G networks, we have been supporting leading companies in various fields to discover new business opportunities and innovate,” said Lee Hae-seong, executive director of LG Uplus’ Future Technology Development Group. “Through our collaboration with PTC, we aim to present a blueprint for smart agriculture.”

The digital twin platform being developed through collaboration between the two companies will be used in conjunction with future AR solutions to provide training materials for employees involved in tractor maintenance, and will also be utilized as a means of customer service innovation, including after-sales service simulation and big data-based customer management.