5G meets Construction Machines: Towards a Smart working Site

TL;DR

This paper explores how 5G connectivity can enhance fleet management, safety, and remote control of construction machines, demonstrating its advantages over Wi-Fi and 4G through simulations.

Contribution

It is the first academic study to analyze 5G's impact on construction machines, comparing its performance with 4G and showcasing feasibility for remote operation.

Findings

5G outperforms 4G in construction machine scenarios

Simulation results demonstrate improved connectivity and control

Feasibility of remote-controlled construction machines with 5G

Abstract

The fleet management of mobile working machines with the help of connectivity can increase safety and productivity. Although in our previous study, we proposed a solution to use IEEE 802.11p to achieve the fleet management of construction machines, the shortcoming of WIFI may limit the usage of this technology in some cases. Alternatively, the fifth-generation mobile networks (5G) have shown great potential to solve the problems. Thus, as the world's first academic paper investigating 5G and construction machines' cooperation, we demonstrated the scenarios where 5G can have a significant effect on the construction machines industry. Also, based on the simulation we made in $ns-3$, we compared the performance of 4G and 5G for the most relevant construction machines scenarios. Last but not least, we showed the feasibility of remote-control and self-working construction machines with the help of 5G.