Being able to control and regulate highly dynamic production systems reliably and securely is still a challenge for many companies. Edge and cloud systems are gaining in importance here, but even today there is still a lack of appropriate equipment and infrastructure to permanently integrate existing machines and systems into digital IT landscapes in line with the necessary industrial requirements. The project partners are now tackling the issue of infrastructure.

For fast and reliable data exchange in the 5G production network, the Aachen research partners in the "5G-Comet" project are relying on a series of standards that are collectively referred to as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN): These enable data transmission with very low latency and high availability and were developed by the Time-Sensitive Networking Task Group, a working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The partners in the 5G-Comet project now want to combine the TSN standards originally developed for wired networks with 5G mobile technology in a real-time-capable overall system. The aim is to achieve highly available, reliable and secure communication between all components and modules: from sensors and actuators at field level via 5G networks and Ethernet connections to the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud (FEC).
The Fraunhofer Edge Cloud acts as the control center for all connected systems in the 5G production network: The data from all components in the network converge here. The high storage and computing capacities of the cloud, the fast data transfer between 5G and Ethernet and the reliable interfaces mean that the numerous individual processes within the network no longer have to be controlled locally, but are instead cloud-based. This means that specially programmed virtual applications can be used to adaptively coordinate real process chains.
To ensure that this works reliably, the Aachen research partners are now also combining the TSN standard for Ethernet with 5G so that the entire production network has a standardized communication infrastructure. The standardized interfaces between the mobile and wired networks should have a positive effect on the reliability of data transmission.

First applications being tested

The Aachen research partners are testing the first application scenarios for real-time control of robot-assisted laser machining and assembly processes:
In the laser processing application, a robot uses a special tool to apply textures, engravings or markings to complex three-dimensional surfaces. Determining the exact position of the robot and the laser tool during operation and precisely controlling both components requires high computing capacities. The end-to-end TSN network with low-latency data transmission to the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud ensures that all the individual systems required can react to each other quickly and without delays. The wireless connection of the tool sensors with 5G and the outsourced control in the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud also allow modular and flexible use of the tool.
Assembly systems with cooperating robots that work together on an assembly task represent another application scenario: Whereas previously the controllers of cooperating robots were connected directly to each other at great hardware expense, in future the necessary computing processes can be outsourced to the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud. All calculations of the robot paths can be carried out there and the results fed back into the robot system. The inclusion of TSN-capable network components provides consistent and reliable synchronization and connection of the individual systems.

5G-Industry Campus Europe as a test environment

Europe's largest 5G research infrastructure, the 5G-Industry Campus Europe, went online in May 2020. A total of seven sub-projects are investigating various application scenarios ranging from 5G sensor technology for monitoring and controlling highly complex manufacturing processes, mobile robotics and logistics to cross-location production chains. The Aachen scientists are also testing the use of modern edge cloud systems for fast data processing in order to exploit the potential of 5G in networked, adaptive production.
The 5G-Industry Campus Europe also offers a fully equipped test environment for the use cases of the 5G-Comet research project: "The 5G infrastructure with the one square kilometer outdoor and several indoor networks offers perfect conditions for testing and trying out time-critical use cases that place high demands on reliability, availability and latency. The communication between the respective individual systems and the Fraunhofer Edge Cloud can be comprehensively tested in this already established environment," says Niels König from the Fraunhofer IPT.
The 5G-Comet project is being funded for two years by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia under the funding code 005-2008-0093.

The project consortium

Participating in the project are

Ericsson GmbH, Herzogenrath

Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT, Aachen

German Edge Cloud GmbH & Co. KG, Eschborn

Hirschmann GmbH, Neckartenzlingen

ISEK Department of Information Theory and Systematic Design of Communication Systems, Aachen

Meastream GmbH, Eschweiler

Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V., Ratingen

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen

SMS Group GmbH, Düsseldorf