This week Hamburg featured the TOC, Terminal Operations Conference; aimed at the niche of ports and terminals and their automation challenges. Private 5G and wireless are key enablers for automation, autonomous trucks, remote operated cranes etc hence for PRIMMA I choose to be there to canvas the eco system.
A focused ecosystem around port automationThe event is specific and is nowhere near the size of an MWC, which is good: it is concise and specific. Typically, there are a lot of crane and AGV suppliers, all depending on (wireless or other) connectivity for their equipment control. Also, there are many hardware suppliers (cables, spreaders, heavy lifting gear, etc) and software suppliers of ERP systems. Quite remarkable: the presence of Chinese crane manufactures (STS cranes, RTG’s, the incumbent manufacturers like Kone and Liebherr have a whole new array of contenders).
Connectivity as a utility: whose domain is it?At the venue I concentrated on the leading crane and AGV suppliers, to present them the option of private wireless networks. These were ao Kone (FIN), Liebherr (GER), HDHM (CN), Genma (CN), Terberg specials vehicles (NL). For all of them connectivity is key, which can be either fibre (often embedded in the reel of the power cable) or wireless. To them anywireless will do, they simply need deterministic KPI’s and couldn’t care whether that is private 5G or wifi or anything else. This is a defendable standpoint; the connectivity is a different scope; one they need, one they’ll specify in terms of KPI’s required yet one that they ‘demand’ from the site owner to be provided.
At the same time I also visited some peripheral players; integrator Cocus, consultants in the port logistics area like HPC (Ger) and Portwise (NL). There was a conference session completely devoted to automation and AGV’s, where again connectivity was essential yet presumed to be present and ‘taken care of’ by someone else. For us in p5G this is a standpoint worth noting: the connectivity required for autonomous or remote crane and AGV operation is a ‘black box’ for these players, one that others cater for and they demand KPI’s from.
Port, crane and AGV automation is already operational
It is worth noting that live operational deployments of autonomous and remotely operated equipment are there already, ranging from Rotterdam (ECT, APM) to Hamburg (HHLA) to ports in the UK and Spain and many more. This is not an emerging niche; these systems are hot and happening !
A more detailed report will be available for PRIMMA programme participants In the more detailed report, we’ll elaborate on the developments, propositions and leads related to the players visited:
Crane and AGV manufacturers:- Kone*
- Liebherr
- Terberg special port vehicles
- Genma (RTG cranes)
- HDHM (STS cranes)
- Cocus
- Siemens
- Embrotech
- Portwise
- HPC
- Hamburg
- Bremen
*: Some years back I wrote a white paper on private 5G for which I interviewed the R&D manager of Kone cranes. In the paper we dwell on KPI’s required for crane control and scope demarcation between the crane and the enabling wireless network. The paper is still available.
Powered by
