A domestic research team is developing a technology that can remotely control a smart factory (Model Factory) located hundreds of kilometers away in real time using 5G and wired networks, raising expectations that this will contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing industry.

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 16th that it successfully demonstrated a remote industrial Internet of Things service based on an ultra-low latency and high reliability 5G wired/wireless network by connecting the laboratory in Building 11 of the ETRI headquarters in Daejeon and the smart factory of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology in Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do.

The services demonstrated include: △Remote real-time production management system, △Remote real-time production robot control, △Real-time production equipment control and management using a remote touch panel, △Real-time process status monitoring using remote VR equipment, and △Remote process monitoring using wireless sensors.

For verification, the research team installed an industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) system based on the latest 5G standard specifications at the Gyeongsan Smart Factory and the ETRI Control Center in Daejeon.

The section between the systems was demonstrated by grafting the research team's wired network technology onto the KOREN optical line.

Through this, within the Gyeongsan Smart Factory, it is 3 milliseconds, and in Daejeon Gyeongsan-Gan 5G industrial terminals have demonstrated round-trip communication within 10 milliseconds, enabling real-time remote smart manufacturing services for the first time in Korea.

Compared to existing demonstration cases that guarantee round-trip delays of less than 10 milliseconds within factories, this technology is expected to signal the beginning of full-scale remote smart manufacturing services.

In particular, it is expected to significantly enhance the technological capabilities of domestic telecommunications and manufacturing-related small and medium-sized enterprises by significantly increasing the efficiency of the industrial ecosystem and responding to the expanded demand for non-face-to-face social activities due to COVID-19.

ETRI Communications and Media Research Institute Director Seungchan Bang said, “We expect this technology to be utilized as an innovative tool to activate 5G smart factories across the manufacturing industry. In particular, we will do our best to promote and activate related technologies at an early stage through cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises,” he said.

This technology was developed through collaboration between the Ministry of Science and ICT and IITP's 'Low-latency, high-reliability, hyper-connectivity integrated core technology to overcome 5G performance limitations for building a cellular-based industrial automation system' project, which has been carried out since March 2017, the network execution project of the ETRI-supported project 'ICT-based technology development for safe unmanned vehicles' project, which has been carried out since January 2017, and the Ministry of Science and ICT and IITP's 'B5G optical access acceleration and slicing technology' project, which has been carried out since April 2019.