New 5G deal signed to speed up UK electric car production

Partnering with BT, Ericsson and NVIDIA, Hyperbat is set to benefit from a world first 5G virtual reality (VR) digital twin solution which allows remote teams in different parts of the country to connect, collaborate, and interact using a virtual 3D engineering model.

By enabling dispersed teams across design, engineering, and manufacturing to collaborate more efficiently, the technology hopes to accelerate the pace of innovation within the UK manufacturing industry.

Hyperbat alongside its partners – BT, Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies, NVIDIA, Masters of Pie and The Grid Factory – unveiled details of the solution at the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC), demonstrating how it will reduce product cycle time between design, engineering, and manufacturing teams based in Coventry and Oxfordshire.

The solution offers a world first untethered 5G native experience that will allow design and engineering teams to walk around and interact with a 3D life-size model in real time through a single self-contained device, and without the constraints of a physical connection.

Hyperbat colleagues in different locations will be able to work with a 1:1 product scale hologram of the design in-situ on the factory floor, review designs in real time, and manage workflows much more effectively.

The solution comprising high bandwidth and low latency 5G connectivity, integrated by Ericsson’s D-15 Lab in Santa Clara, California, will enable Hyperbat to deliver engineering projects at scale. This will empower teams to improve build efficiency within its manufacturing processes, whilst removing current complexities between product management systems, supply chain, and factory operations.

The 5G VR digital twin solution will be deployed by BT and Ericsson on a 5G mobile private network, using the world’s first 5G-enabled VR headset powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Platform. The VR headset will run on the Masters of Pie Radical platform, enabling Hyperbat to use cloud-based virtual reality within CAD software.

Using high performance edge compute, the solution also includes cutting-edge hardware and software from NVIDIA to seamlessly integrate into existing factory floor operations. Qualcomm’s VR headset incorporates split rendering where all the perception-based data is held locally on the device, but the computing is handled in the cloud and streamed by the NVIDIA CloudXR and NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) solutions. This helps to achieve a seamless, high fidelity VR experience that produces a real-life experience for the manufacturing teams.

Hosein Torabmostaedi, Unipart Manufacturing Digital and Innovation Manager said: ‘‘The solution is mainly targeted at collaborative mobile workforce with the use of 5G native headsets and seamless integration of design and manufacturing systems with the digital twin technologies. Hyperbat also hopes to extend the solution to the use of 5G connectivity for machines to enable configurable and flexible production lines. The solutions will be demonstrated and trialled at Hyperbat’s facility in Coventry, United Kingdom.”

The Hyperbat solution is near completion with results of the collaboration expected in early summer.

Hyperbat www.hyperbat.com