At bauma 2019, Doosan demonstrated the use of 5G technology for remote control of construction machines worldwide. Doosan has coined the term ‘TeleOperation’ to describe the operation of construction equipment from a remote station. The manufacturer demonstrated how a Doosan DX380LC-5 40 tonne crawler excavator located in Incheon, South Korea, over 8500km away from Munich, could be controlled from an operator’s booth on the bauma stand.
Doosan’s TeleOperation control has been co-developed with LG U+, the South Korean telecommunications and data services company. The Teleoperation demonstration on the Doosan stand is the first to remotely control a machine across such a large distance between locations which have a time difference of eight hours, using 5G telecommunications technology.
For TeleOperation to function properly, it is essential to deliver live video streaming at the operator’s station in a reliable way that minimizes time lag in the system for the operator. With its ultrareliability and low latency (signal delay), the new 5G network overcomes these issues in the Doosan system, providing 10 times faster bandwidth and 10 times lower latency than a 4G network. Thus, the operator has the same real-time control of the remote excavator and with high accuracy.
Features such as 3D machine guidance, real time diagnostics and a full gauge display are incorporated in the Teleoperation control booth at bauma. Special features include a low-latency video transmission module with fast video transfer (with encoding and decoding), an important factor in reducing the time delay. LG U+ has also introduced new modules providing low latency image processing to further minimize the time delay. Another factor in creating more effective remote control is the use of Doosan’s electrohydraulic technology in the DX380LC-5 excavator.
The DX380LC-5 excavator used for the demonstration at bauma was a standard machine, which allows Doosan to ensure the performance and the compatibility of third party attachments and other equipment installed on the excavator. According to Doosan, it is also possible to carry out both normal operation and TeleOperation with the same machine.
The TeleOperation system is suitable for operating excavators in dangerous applications such as industrial waste disposal involving hazardous, toxic or radioactive substances. It is also useful for work on collapsing waste piles and in areas where there are buried mines and other munitions. Safety can be further increased via the zoning and area limitation functions available through the TeleOperation system.
