LBS & AI

SK Telecom, Samsung set sail with 5G autonomous navigation platform

SK Telecom and Samsung Heavy Industries set sail with their 5G-based autonomous navigation platform, which will allow ships to move and set destinations on their own. Samsung provided 3.3m craft for the trial, which SK Telecom equipped with LIDAR at a shipyard covered by its 5G network. The companies then set the ship’s destination from a control center located 250km away in Daejeon City.

The ship’s safe arrival at the set destination was confirmed using an SKT real-time video monitoring platform. SK Telecom said it successfully recognized and avoided obstacles. They were also able to remotely control and monitor the ship from the control center through using the telco’s 5G network. Eventually, SK Telecom and Samsung hope to develop a “5G smart yard” that will improve the safety of ships when sailing in particularly treacherous environments such as narrow waters and near shore. www.rcrwireless.com

Combating counterfeit activity in aerospace with Blockchain

Honeywell is working with iTRACE and SecureMarking to bring transparency and increased security to the e-commerce market of aerospace products via blockchain technology. This first-of-its-kind process in the aerospace market will greatly simplify the complex regulatory and supply-chain landscape in the industry. Under the new process, the moment a part comes off the Honeywell assembly line, the identification plate receives a two-factor authentication marking. First, iTRACE’s 2DMI data matrix is laser-etched onto the identification plate. Next, an invisible, high-security ink, provided by Honeywell’s Performance Materials and Technologies (PMT) business and SecureMarking, a thirdparty authentication company, is applied.

Finally, the iTRACE mobile app scans the 2D matrix and activates the digital authenticity record for the part. This data, along with the part’s birth information, is recorded on Honeywell’s digital blockchain ledger Because the two-factor authentication always follows the part from the time of installation until it is taken out of service, the results of this process are a reduction in counterfeit parts and a more dependable supply chain for manufacturers. This anti-counterfeit blockchain technology will have a far-reaching impact in aerospace, where parts change ownership an average of four times throughout their life cycle. www.honeywell.com

Mitsubishi Corporation and NTT new investors in HERE Technologies

HERE Technologies announced that Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) of Japan are to jointly acquire a 30% ownership stake in the company. The companies are co-investing in HERE via their newly established, jointly owned holding company COCO Tech Holding B.V. in the Netherlands.

Platform for next-generation autonomous electric vehicles

Southern California-based automaker and high-tech incubator Karma Group has announced during the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference in China that it will leverage the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Xavier and Pegasus AI computing platforms for future autonomous electric vehicle capabilities.

Karma Group’s path forward as a technology-focused innovator combines its two vehicle platforms and two core technologies with five intelligent ecosystems. Karma’s vehicle platforms consist of its family of Revero vehicles and Project e-Klipse, its all-electric global platform starting in 2021. Its two core technologies include both full electric vehicles (BEVs) and extended range vehicles (EREVS). These platforms and technologies are supported by five intelligent ecosystems: Karma Skateboard, Cockpit, CarNet, Drive and Cloud. Karma’s ecosystems and electric vehicle architecture can be scaled across different vehicle models and types, powered by cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and advanced connectivity.

Karma will leverage both NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Xavier and DRIVE AGX Pegasus AI computing platforms for its autonomous driving systems. At the core of the DRIVE AGX platform is the auto-grade NVIDIA Xavier system-ona- chip, the first processor developed for autonomous driving. It incorporates six different types of processors for running redundant and diverse algorithms for AI, sensor processing, mapping and driving. www.karmaautomotive.com

XAG launches farm robots and smart agriculture management system

To establish an integrated smart agricultural system, XAG has released R80 Agricultural Utility Vehicle (XAUV™), AutoPilot Console (XAPC™) and Smart Agriculture System (XSAS™) at SAC 2020. This complements XAG’s existing drone-based solutions and automates every production process from planting, seeding, management to harvest.

XAUV™ R80 is an autonomous, multifunctional farm robot which allows third-party payloads and adapts to both plain fields and sloped terrains. While inheriting XAG’s technical advantages in centimetre-level RTK navigation and variable-rate application, XAUV™ R80 can support 80L payload capacity and embark different agricultural devices, such as JetSprayer™ and XIoT™, for orchard spraying, open field weeding, crop monitoring and farm transportation. www.xa.com

Intel acquires Israel-based startup Habana Labs

Intel Corp has bought Israel-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Habana Labs for about $2 billion, the chipmaker said, seeking to expand its AI portfolio to bolster its data-center business. Intel expects the fast-growing AI chip market to exceed $25 billion by 2024, with its own AI-driven revenues this year seen rising 20% from 2018 to more than $3.5 billion. The deal follows a string of AIrelated acquisitions by Intel in recent years, including Movidius, Nervana, Altera and Mobileye. https://newsroom.intel.com