MobileCorp is the lead technology partner for a 5G Innovation project that aims to reconnect indigenous elders with traditional land and sea country by streaming HD video from underwater and aerial drones.
MobileCorp has partnered with the Gidarjil Development Corporation and two drone operators, SeeunderSea and Drone Training Solutions, to secure the grant which was awarded as part of the Federal Government's first 5G Innovation Initiative.
MobileCorp is the technology lead for the project which will take place in Bundaberg and Cairns over the next 12 months. MobileCorp will provide technical 5G connectivity consultancy and on-site operations utilising Telstra's public 5G network and Cradlepoint 5G hardware with NetCloud management.
MobileCorp Managing Director, Stephen Aravopoulos, said the grant will test the capacity for 5G to make a meaningful difference to the Gidarjil Drone Program, the Gidarjil community and the wider community of North Queensland.
"This is an exciting and innovative project which will use the advanced capabilities of 5G to capture video of important cultural sites, share this knowledge visually to enhance storytelling, and also to create commercial opportunities for the Gidarjil Land and Sea Ranger Drone Program.
"The immediate use case being tested will be to reconnect Gidarjil Elders with their traditional land and sea country through HD video streaming from underwater and aerial drones which are controlled remotely by Elder participants."
Some of the commercial use cases for this technology could include coral reef scientific data collection, shark spotting, environmental recording and mapping, feral animal management, and cultural burn management.
The MobileCorp 5G Innovation grant, is one of 19 that have been awarded by the Federal Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.
The 19 successful projects, totalling $20 million in grant funding, will trial 5G use across key sectors of the economy, including agriculture, construction, manufacturing, transport and education and training.
The Grants awarded are:
$284,000
This project will demonstrate full high definition video streaming, remote participant interaction and remote participant control of underwater and aerial drones via the internet. It will engage Gidarjil Elders present and emerging in care for traditional land and sea country by removing physical barriers that have previously made it difficult to attend remote locations. It will combine traditional knowledge and story-telling with innovative technologies and methods and allow Gidarjil to share traditional, contemporary and future knowledge of land and sea country with the broader community. The technology will also provide job creation opportunities and growth of the Gidarjil Land and Sea Ranger Drone program. It will reduce risk, increase productivity and create employment opportunities in scientific data collection and environmental management of land and sea country by indigenous communities.
$932,850
This project will enable rigorous testing of innovative, ruggedised long-range 5G gateways in agricultural applications across various regional, rural and remote locations, and showcase the productivity benefits that high bandwidth, low latency connectivity can deliver to primary producers and the wider agriculture sector.
$1,931,254
The Aqura 5G Underground Experience (A5UX) Initiative is focused on the creation of a private 5G LTE network technical architecture and commercial model to be delivered in an operating underground mine. The project will seek to test 5G as a viable underground network wireless broadband technology, validate a commercial business case to enable other underground operations to acquire the technology, and validate the 5G LTE underground network via a number of technology use cases.
$412,000
This project will implement a 5G-enabled technology platform to address improvements in the quality assurance process of meat production, addressing regulatory costs and eliminating human inspection errors. Specifically, the project will:
$1,181,258
This project will demonstrate a mobile 5G-based Internet of Things (IoT) solution that:
$1,446,982
This project will test 5G's capabilities in remotely controlling a vehicle, switching ownership between the driverless and remote-control systems and exchanging necessary data for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. These tests will be compared to tests taken over existing infrastructure such as 4G.
$1,428,420
This project will demonstrate 5G applications that enable safe, efficient and reliable operation of Automated Shuttle Vehicles (ASVs), in order to provide enhanced mobility for disabled and elderly passengers.
ASVs can provide an effective solution to a key missing link in current public transport ecosystems – first and last kilometre travel. This project will demonstrate that high-speed, low-latency communications are essential to achieve the full potential of ASVs, comparing 4G and 5G operations to demonstrate 5G's superior performance.
$793,736
Liminal will develop Interchange, a 5G-enabled virtual reality (VR) soft skills training program which will use artificial intelligence to generate real-time, animated responses by high fidelity virtual humans. Animated responses will be determined by real-time emotional analysis of verbal statements made by trainees, using IBM's Watson cloud-based cognitive computing system. Interchange will demonstrate the capabilities of commercially available 5G networks to a range of industries across Australia - made possible by innovation leaps driven by 5G, edge computing, AI and VR.
$250,000
This project involves the implementation, testing and trials of 5G-enabled software for real-time streaming of construction site digital twins between workers on site and their office colleagues, using retail 5G mobiles and networks. This technology will harness the potential of 5G technologies to improve how every worker in the construction industry visualises and communicates complex problems on construction sites, ultimately improving worker productivity and safety whilst creating new jobs.
$923,613
This project aims to demonstrate how 5G can be used to offload both sensor data and intensive processing from the cobot to a powerful edge cloud compute platform capable of processing this data and based upon this, instruct the cobot how to interact with its surroundings including nearby humans in real-time. The project will explore the feasibility of this process and aims to develop key learnings applicable to 5G-based remote control of cobots and autonomous entities such as cars, robots, and drones.
$1,913,013
Nokia and the South Australian Government are proposing a 'National 5G Industrial Incubation Lab' to be established in Adelaide to deliver three key user cases covering:
These 5G user cases will be supported by partner eco systems from Adelaide Airport, South Australian Power Network and Department for Infrastructure and Transport. This includes utilisation of local expertise from The Australian institute for Machine learning (University of Adelaide).
$648,000
Optus in partnership with Endeavour Energy, Unleash live and Amazon Web Services will trial the use of drones and vehicles equipped with 5G-connected ultra-high definition (UHD) cameras with computer vision to intelligently monitor Endeavour's critical electrical infrastructure. If successful, this technology has the potential to reduce the time to diagnose faults, increase safety and reduce carbon emission from vehicles and helicopters.
$2,000,000
Qube is developing the Moorebank Logistics Park (MLP), an intermodal rail terminal. Central to the value proposition of MLP is the efficient movement of containers from Port Botany to onsite warehouses. This project will install 5G communications to link automated vehicles to the central fleet management and safety system with the low latency and high reliability of 5G used to create safe, reliable operations. The project will evaluate the performance and benefits of 5G and automated transport systems.
$1,496,627
Rheinmetall are developing an autonomous/remote control 'Firefighting Tank' (called the Fire Tank) which is a purpose built firefighting vehicle capable of traversing extremely dangerous terrains to support rescue, path clearing and firefighting missions.
This project will investigate using low-band 5G to support long-range remote control of these vehicles. The project is focused on investigating the feasibility of this technology and development of a drone based 5G range extension capability.
$1,127,100
Precise positioning of consumer devices to within 10cm is now possible through 5G. However, users are unable to access this capability due to infrastructure and device interoperability barriers. A 5G Precise Positioning Testbed using the Optus network supported by global telecommunications and positioning leaders Ericsson and GMV, will demonstrate and measure economic benefits of four business applications using 3GPP in the agriculture and consumer sectors, and help inform future 5G investment decisions.
$816,750
This project will develop 5G-enabled telecommunications infrastructure to enable two key innovations:
$1,455,000
This project aims to demonstrate how 5G networks can complement artificial intelligence-enabled image processing, computer vision and edge computing technologies to deliver benefits and efficiencies to the agricultural sector. The project will use 5G to enable multiple high quality 4K video streams to count sheep at a regional livestock exchange, automating the process and removing human error. A supporting 5G edge network will process the counting on site and relay the data in real time back to farmers on a tablet or mobile device.
$380,860
Transdev Sydney Ferries will install equipment on a subset of ferries that will use 5G to support applications including:
This project will measure and compare performance metrics of ferries fitted with both 5G and non-5G technologies.
$120,000
Thousands of kilometres of pipes are inspected every year in Australia and around the world to maintain the condition of sewer and stormwater networks. Today this process relies on visual observations of busy operators and defects are often missed. VAPAR has developed AI (Artificial Intelligence) to automatically detect defects in pipes. Thanks to low latency and massive machine-to-machine communication, 5G will now allow for this analysis to be done in real-time to assist operators to better identify defects. This technology will make condition assessment faster and cheaper, benefiting public infrastructure and the cost of water for all Australians.
The Gidarjil Development Corporation is an indigenous owned enterprise, based in Bundaberg, Queensland. The Corporation was established in 2000 by representatives of the Gurang and Gooreng Gooreng peoples to give leadership and momentum to the economic, social and cultural development of indigenous people.
Our vision at Gidarjil is to become economically independent and to help Indigenous Australians participate in the wealth and prosperity of the broader Australian economy. With this in mind, we identify and vigorously pursue employment, training, commercial and cultural opportunities that enable us to protect our traditional culture, create wealth, accumulate assets and achieve our financial aspirations. We do this by entering into mutually respectful and responsible partnerships and joint ventures with a range of interests including government organisations, community
groups and companies operating in the resource sectors.
MobileCorp is a communications technology Managed Service Provider, based in Sydney. We are leading Australian Enterprises down the pathway to 5G adoption. Our capabilities extend across 5G and Enterprise Mobility, Data Networks and Cloud, Unified Comms and Managed IT. We are a foundational Telstra Platinum Mobility Partner , a Cradlepoint Elite Partner and hold many other industry accreditations.
SeeUnderSea is the lead partner in delivering the Gadarjil underwater drone program. Led by Jason Perry, a civil engineer, passionate citizen scientist and experimental technologist. SeeUnderSea operates a series of education and training programs, drone facilitated tours and expeditions and is based in Brisbane.
Drone Training Solutions is the lead partner in delivering the Gadarjil aerial drone program. Led by John Coulombe, DTS works with large corporations, small businesses, government organisations, research institutions and individuals, to provide specialised drone training and development solutions to increase the skill levels of employees and researchers throughout Australia. DTS helps individuals and organisations understand the revolutionary benefits of drone technology, and gain the skills to implement drone technology safely and effectively in their workplaces.