A 5G-based precise positioning system created in collaboration with German tech giant Bosch is aimed at new Industrial 4.0 use cases. The businesses stated on Tuesday that the proof-of-concept network in the latter's manufacturing facility in Germany showed accuracy to within 50 cm.

The positioning technology was able to pinpoint the location of resources including automated guided vehicles, mobile robots, and mobile control panels in the factory test, which was carried out under realistic manufacturing settings, and follow their real-time movements across the facility.

In a nutshell, the solution enables precise location determination for 5G-connected devices in environments without global navigation satellite service coverage, such as factories, warehouses, or subterranean facilities.

"Numerous industrial applications, including robot navigation, asset tracking, and worker safety, depend on precise localisation. There are numerous operational advantages to realising high-performance connectivity and high-accuracy positioning within a single private network's infrastructure, such as lowering the complexity of IT infrastructure, which results in a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and higher returns on investments, "In a press release, Nokia said.

Nokia and Bosch are working together on 6G research, looking at how future next-gen networks might be utilised for both communications and sensing once they are commercially available, in addition to the precise positioning technology. Although 5G can locate connected devices, 6G will be able to track the position of any object, whether it is linked or not.

"Nokia and Bosch Bell Labs envisions a time where networks are used for much more than just communication. In areas where satellites can't go, 5G will soon be able to track linked devices more precisely than they do now. In the following ten years, 6G will be able to detect every object inside its service area, including those without active radios. We are developing networks that will give people a digital sixth sense "said Peter Vetter, head of Nokia's Bell Laboratories Core Research.

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