iTEAM-UPV drives from the MWC2021 in Barcelona a ship located in the Marina of Valencia, thanks to 5G.

The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), through its Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM), together with the companies Orange and ZTE, are presenting these days at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) a pioneering project at the international level in the field of 5G that allows controlling and crew remotely from, located in Fira Barcelona – MWC venue – a boat located in La Marina de València. The project has also involved the company Fivecomm and a team from the Universidad Politècnica de Cartagena (UPCT).

Over the last few months, the project team has worked on fine-tuning the boat. Named Laser5G, it is equipped and fitted with different 360 cameras and 5G communications and control systems.

Visitors to the Orange stand at the Mobile World Congress can get behind the controls of the boat, in this case, a model that reproduces the boat on the stand itself, with virtual reality glasses that give them the sensation of immersion, that is, of being virtually in the Marina de València on the boat, controlling the remote navigation in real-time. Meanwhile, the public sees on a screen what is shown on the virtual reality glasses and a view of the boat sailing through the waters of La Marina de València.

The remote navigation demonstration pushes all the quality indicators of the 5G network to the limit, as it requires both a very low response time (latency) in the control of the vessel from the remote command post; very high reliability in communications, which guarantees that orders to control the vessel are not stopped being sent; and very high bandwidth. All of this happens over 360 kilometres away and is possible thanks to Orange’s 5G network.

This demonstration serves to give an idea of the range of possibilities that will open up with the mass roll-out of 5G.

Orange, in collaboration with ZTE, the Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM) of the UPV and the Marina de Valencia, will show today at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 held in Barcelona, a use case of remote control on a maritime vehicle, specifically, the Laser 5G, an unmanned boat, five metres long, equipped with several cameras and communications and control via 5G.