The BOSCH GROUP is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 410.000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2018). According to preliminary figures, the company generated sales of 78 billion euros in 2018. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology
Bosch Automotive’s presence in Spain, dating back to 1908. Its activities are currently divided into four companies located in Madrid and Barcelona.
The BOSCH GROUP consists of ROBERT BOSCH GMBH and its more than 300 subsidiaries and regional companies in approximately 60 countries, with a total of 30,000 researchers and developers in charge of the company.
The BOSCH GROUP is especially committed to the development of technology that analyse the surrounding of the vehicle and new functions and systems able to protect the passengers and pedestrian. In the future, The Bosch group will connect the vehicles with other road users, infrastructure and internet to make driving without accidents or injuries.The BOSCH GROUP participates in the project through the Bosch´s Lliça d’Amunt factory.
The Liça d’Amunt plant Bosch Sistemas de Frenado S.L.U. (hereinafter BOSCH), is integrated into the Bosch group in Spain and belongs to the Chassis Systems Brakes division. Located 30 km north of Barcelona, it specializes in development, the manufacture and assembly of brake boosters and master cylinders, all of them related to the braking system. In this way, in recent years the plant has specialized in the manufacture of two large product segments such as the master cylinder and power brakes.
BOSCH will assume the role in the project as a demonstrator of a novel system architecture that combines the benefits of IoT, AR, 5G and AI. The current system requires some improvements, especially related to operational safety in order to avoid AGVs collision with each other or hit any factory worker.
- First, a high precision IoT localization layer will be deployed merging real time localizations obtained from UltraWideBand (UWB) sensors and a solution providing Visible Light Positioning (VLP). The combination of UWB and VLP will provide cm-level accuracy to accurately track the real-time positions of the AGVs, which will be equipped with inexpensive UWB and CMOS tracking sensors. In addition, safety cameras will be deployed to monitor areas with reduced visibility and where there is a danger of a worker being driven over by an AGV. The camera signals and the real time locations obtained through the UWB+VLP system will be streamed in real-time to the tracking and computer vision modules deployed in the factory edge computing facilities.
- Second, a high speed and ultra-low latency wireless access network to support quick notifications and massive data uploads will also be deployed based on a combination of 5GNR technology, using private spectrum at 3.5 GHz, and high-speed Wi-Fi using unlicensed spectrum at 5 GHz.
- Third, the factory will feature edge computing resources that will be used to support a set of virtual AI functions that will process the real-time location of the AGVs, the real time stream coming from the safety cameras. The AI functions will determine a potential collision between AGVs, or between a worker and an AGV and will issue an early warning.
The implementation and results will be shared with the consortium partners.
Specifically, BOSCH will contribute to the main requirements analysis and targeted KPIs and to the alignment with the further technological achievement. Moreover, BOSCH will participate in the integration activities, where the use case services application logic will be posed. Additionally, BOSCH will contribute to “IoT-NGIN Living Labs Validation & 3rd Party Support”, and specifically will lead the Smart Industry 4.0 use case. Finally, BOSCH will participate in the impact creation activities and specifically in IoT-NGIN’s exploitation plans, and the interaction with standard organizations.
