TCS tests neural manufacturing solutions on Airtel’s 5G network

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Airtel have completed the testing of innovative use cases from the former’s neural manufacturing solutions suite on the latter’s 5G network.

After the 5G trial spectrum was allocated by the Indian Department of Telecommunications, Tata Consultancy Services and Airtel joined forces to evaluate use cases. The neural manufacturing suite of solutions is said to enable manufacturers in building smart, cognitive factories which adapt resilient and adaptive behaviors.

The solutions are said to make use of the ultra-reliable low latency communication, improved bandwidth, and characteristics of high device density of 5G networks and the combined power of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), computer vision, industrial robotics, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), and other emerging technologies to facilitate autonomous actions on the shopfloor.

Randeep Sekhon — CTO of Bharti Airtel said: “Airtel is spearheading 5G in India. The 5G ecosystem will open limitless possibilities for enterprises to enhance productivity and serve their customers even better with digitally enabled applications.

“We are delighted to work with TCS as our strategic technology partner to start testing real life 5G applications of the future. This also offers tremendous learnings across the value chain and lays a solid foundation for future application roadmap.”

Tata Consultancy Services tests neural manufacturing solutions on Airtel’s 5G network. Photo courtesy of F. Muhammad from Pixabay.

Tata Consultancy Services said that it has tested a couple of use cases successfully on Airtel’s 5G testbed. These include remote manufacturing operations with the help of robotics, and vision-based quality inspection.

The use cases showed how the neural manufacturing solutions of Tata Consultancy Services and Airtel’s 5G technology can transform operations of plants, and improve quality, productivity, and safety considerably.

Susheel Vasudevan — Tata Consultancy Service Business Group Head of Manufacturing & Utilities said: “We believe the future of manufacturing is neural, and have been making sustained investments in research, and innovation, and in building intellectual property.

“We will continue to build new, differentiated capabilities into TCS’ Neural Manufacturing suite of solutions, harnessing the power of machine vision, machine intelligence and 5G to reimagine and redefine the way smart factories operate. Our partnership with Airtel to deploy and validate these innovative use cases on their 5G network serves as a proof point of the transformative power of these technologies.”