Airtel, TCS tap robotics to roll out 5G-based operations remotely

Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will jointly set up remote robotic units and artificial intelligence-driven inspection to help manufacturers develop smart factories across India.

Smart factory can be defined as a factory where physical production processes and operations are combined with digital technology, smart computing and big data, to cater to companies’ manufacturing and supply chain management.

Airtel said it will be leveraging TCS’s Neural Manufacturing suite solutions for its 5G roll out.

Also read: Airtel carries out first 5G trial in 700MHz in Kolkata

“These solutions help manufacturers build smart, cognitive factories which mimic resilient and adaptive behaviours as well as enable remote robotic operations in potentially hazardous environments like mining, chemical plants, and oil and gas fields to safeguard human capital,” Airtel said in a statement.

“They leverage the ultra-reliable low latency communication, enhanced bandwidth, and high device density characteristics of 5G networks and the combinatorial power of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence or machine learning, computer vision, industrial robotics and augmented reality or virtual reality to enable autonomous actions,” it added.

Also read: Airtel and Capgemini collaborate to offer 5G-based solutions to Indian enterprises

The department of Telecommunications has allotted 5G trial spectrum to Airtel for ensuring technology validation. The company has 5G solutions for business endeavors and partnering with tech companies to showcase a range of enterprise-grade use cases using high speed and low latency networks. 

Both the companies are doing the trial at Airtel’s 5G Lab in Manesar (Gurugram).

“TCS’ Neural Manufacturing suite of solutions help customers across manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, automotive, aerospace, energy, utilities, healthcare, life science and hi-tech domains, achieve an autonomous or lights-out factory vision,” the  company said in a statement.

In June, Airtel and TCS collaborated for implementing 5G networks solutions for India. TCS developed an O-RAN based radio and core capacities and integrated a totally indigenous telecom stack, leveraging the group capabilities and that of its partners.

O-RAN or open radio access network is a telecommunication system that connects individual devices through radio connections with other parts of the network. 

The solution was supposed to be made available for commercial development starting January 2022. However, there seems no clarity given the delay of the government’s 5G spectrum auction plan.