33010300-16-10-02-CN At the recently held 2019 China International Communications Exhibition, Chen Zhaoxiong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, officially announced the official launch of 5G commercial use, and 130,000 5G base stations will be opened by the end of this year, with continuous coverage in Beijing, Shanghai and other places. This marks that China’s 5G communication services have truly entered the era of nationwide commercial use. 5G will also fully empower the logistics industry as a new generation of information technology.

A new generation of logistics stage and scene deduction process based on 5G

33010300-16-10-02-CN A new generation of logistics stage and scene deduction process based on 5G

1. 5G promotes the intelligence of the logistics and warehousing environment

In the new generation of logistics industry, logistics warehousing needs to be fully automated, which requires the promotion of artificial intelligence technology, there are already a lot of intelligent robot equipment is used in the storage link to achieve automated logistics sorting, automated goods transmission and automated warehousing and so on. Driven by 5G, a new generation of mobile communication technology, the full automation of the warehouse environment has become more promising.

33010300-16-10-02-CN The combination of 5G and artificial intelligence technology is also an inevitable trend, and the hardware chips embedded in many robot devices often cannot play more roles due to problems such as delay and energy consumption under the support of existing communication technologies, so the reliable transmission performance of 5G is enough to promote the use of intelligent robots. At present, there are many places in logistics that have begun to use artificial intelligence technology, and many robot-like hardware devices have been used for logistics services.

Schematic diagram of automated storage environment

Schematic diagram of automated storage environment

Intelligent warehousing is one of the most widely used scenarios of artificial intelligence technology in the new generation of logistics industry. 5G, as a transport layer technology, provides a powerful communication environment for it. Meanwhile, the massive access characteristics of 5G make many intelligent terminal devices in the warehousing process play an active role in each module. For example, there are many drones, robots, shuttles, wearable devices and sorting equipment in the storage environment.

Efficient intelligent warehousing comes from the support of 5G, so 5G indirectly provides goods protection for upstream e-commerce enterprises through warehousing, and can provide customers with better logistics service experience. 33010300-16-10-02-CN Intelligent warehousing also requires enterprises to invest more hardware resources and rationally layout the mode of warehousing, so that 5G can play a greater effect. The country is also very concerned about the warehousing automation of logistics enterprises, because the value of logistics warehousing is the largest node of the entire supply chain, the use of intelligent warehousing environment can not only ensure storage safety, but also improve the efficiency of warehousing and warehousing.

2. Fully automated logistics transportation based on 5G

Whether it is automated driving or other intelligent driving technology, it needs the support of vehicle networking technology. Vehicle networking technology can make vehicles or drones and other equipment in logistics easily access the network platform, and the remote control center can schedule and plan it and issue necessary instructions. As a new generation of highly efficient mobile communication technology, 5G can enable vehicles used in logistics transportation to break through the bottleneck of the intelligent process of non-line-of-sight perception, data information instant sharing and other technologies, and help realize the situation of full automation of logistics and transportation.

33010300-16-10-02-CN 5G is mainly used for terminal communication of logistics transportation, that is, the process of data interaction and communication between transport vehicles and remote cloud control centers and logistics application services, and the terminal is responsible for collecting data, accepting instructions and sending information, mainly including road conditions and vehicle conditions. Application services and cloud control centers can still communicate over wired Ethernet. The main reason for the adoption of 5G communication in the structure is that 5G can meet the high-quality performance of self-organizing network construction required by the vehicle networking environment, real-time data sharing and mass transmission, low time delay and high reliability.

3. Augmented reality logistics application based on 5G

33010300-16-10-02-CN The next generation of logistics AR technology will rely on 5G as the support for its data communication.

The most difficult point in warehouse operations is the sorting and review of logistics. AR technology can use arrows to guide employees to the specific location of goods in the visual environment, and then the system will display the number of goods that need to be picked, and employees can complete the selection operation. At the same time, AR technology can also help engineers view the three-dimensional layout of the warehouse and then adjust to complete the design of the warehouse.

With the support of AR technology and background calculation in the transportation process, transportation personnel can optimize the stowing and loading sequence of transportation items, and achieve a more efficient and accurate loading and unloading and transferring process. In the distribution link, AR technology can optimize the distribution route and display the road condition accurately and timely. The employees responsible for distribution can use AR glasses to search the Courier number and identify the house number when distributing the Courier to the customer, improve the dispatch efficiency and ensure the last kilometer delivery.

As a data communication technology for AR, 5G can enable staff to use AR glasses to efficiently complete their work all the time, making logistics truly integrated from warehousing to transportation to distribution.