Future-proofed mission-critical machine control
Automated and autonomous machines are an essential and growing part of smart work sites both on land and at sea. The purpose of the MC2 (Mission-Critical Machine Control) research project was to gain a deeper understanding of what kind of development needs and opportunities the technology of SATEL has, so that it meets the communication needs of future autonomous work sites.
Digitalization drives productivity on smart worksites and it requires seamless site connectivity. The increasing use of automated and autonomous machines raises various needs for mission-critical connectivity applications such as collision avoidance, machine-to-machine commands, secure system management and safety signalling.
“The key requirements for mission-critical connectivity in automated machine control are related to the inherent nature of the industry. The work sites are located both in urban and remote locations, the sizes vary from large fleet to few machines and most of the time the environment can be very harsh. We want to stay at the forefront of the evolving technology environment of smart worksites with our solutions”, says the Product Development Director of SATEL Jussi Savolainen.
Product development for the needs of smart work sites
The view of SATEL is that the best future-proof solution for smart work sites is achieved by integrating several radio technologies. By intelligently utilizing and combining the best features of each technology, the overall needs of sites and the work process are optimally and cost-effectively solved. One of those technologies is naturally the own radio technology of SATEL.
The topics covered in MC2 research project were, for example, a significant increase in the data transmission speed of SATEL technology, minimizing latency (data transfer delay) to the millisecond level required by machine control, and moving from fixed routing networks to dynamic (Mesh) networks.
“Based on the results of the research, we have, for example, improved the data transmission delay. We also gathered valuable information about the standardization of information security for the future and promising ideas for further refining our own technology”, Jussi Savolainen states and continues, that however, the best part of the project was the collective learning and getting different ideas for product development and future product releases.
The MC2 research was carried out in cooperation with technical Research Centre VTT and Turku University of Applied Sciences from 2020 to 2022.