Taipei, Taiwan, January 27, 2021 – ADLINK Technology Inc., a global leader in edge computing, has joined forces with Institute for Information Industry (III) and Fair Friend Group (FFG) to develop the world’s first private 5G factory and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) connected with DDS technology. The project benefits from the low latency and high efficiency of wireless 5G network technology to enable swarm autonomy – the autonomous operation, parallel communication and intelligent collaboration of machines and robots in a smart factory – improving work efficiency, reducing cost and increasing production yield.
“Built on the capability of industrial computing, ADLINK has observed the challenges and bottlenecks of Taiwan’s traditional manufacturing industry such as high-mix, low-volume and labor shortages, driving the transformation to smart factories. ADLINK's ROScube is the world's first hardware and software integrated robotic controller that adopts ROS 2. The default DDS for ROS 2 will become ADLINK's Cyclone DDS this year, which has long been used in military and aerospace to provide outstanding data reliability and availability,” said Jim Liu, ADLINK's Chairman and CEO. “ADLINK is the first company in Asia to provide DDS technology to help our customers develop and deploy factories leveraging swarm autonomy. factories of Swarm Autonomy. Our ROScube allows companies to move to ROS 2 easily, connecting AMRs, robot arms and even machining centers. Combining our solution for automated optical inspection (AOI) in the smart factory and 5G MEC, manufacturers in APAC regions can now build their own 5G smart factories.”
“When it comes to lights-out manufacturing and automation integration, FFG’s smart factory has achieved remarkable results after combining 5G technology solutions and automated optical inspection. By replacing our manual visual processes, we’ve reduced inspection time by up to 25% and production costs by more than 20% while increasing product yield by 16%. Production line personnel now perform remote collaboration through AR smart glasses, allowing remote experts to provide real-time guidance which is expected to increase work efficiency by 15% and reduce maintenance costs by 20%,” said Jimmy Chu, Chairman and CEO of FFG. “In the future, FFG will continue to help European and American brands transfer production to Taiwan. My goal is to further Taiwan’s’ leadership in global manufacturing, exports and industrial automation.”
"The 5G SA private network we’ve developed is assisting in the project, covering three application areas,” said Dr. CH Cho, CEO of the Institute for Information Industry (III). “The first is AOI image detection combined with edge computing. We’re using artificial intelligence to interpret the image and 5G to return high-resolution images to the edge, issuing control commands to the front robotic arm.The second is using 5G with mixed reality (MR) smart. The back-end system provides virtual images combined with real objects through the mixed reality smart glasses, providing step-by-step operational procedures for the front-end operator. And the third is autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Combined with real-time 3D images, we’re using 5G to send 3D images to the AMR so it can simultaneously locate and map where to go, detour and re-plan to avoid colliding with other AMRs on complex routes. The factory of the future is here!”
FFG’s smart factory, located in Hsinchu, demonstrates the power of cross-industry collaboration. Through the strong alliance of ADLINK, FFG and the III, the factory of the future is flexible, resilient and here to stay.
Learn more by visiting the ADLINK website here.