Verizon and Newlab unveil results of 2021 5G Studio

30th July 2021
5G Network Internet Mobile Wireless Business concept.

The 5G Studio enables leading innovators to leverage Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network and Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) to develop transformative tech across various industries.

Verizon and Newlab have announced the results from the latest cohort of startups in the 5G Studio. Verizon and Newlab created the 5G Studio in 2020 to support the development of next-generation applications to transform industries such as mobility, energy, and industrial automation. The selected startups leveraged Verizon’s Ultra Wideband 5G network and Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) capabilities installed at Newlab, to test their technologies.

“The 5G Studio provides a test bed for truly transformative innovation that leverages the power of Verizon’s 5G network,” said Elise Neel, VP of New Business Incubation at Verizon. “We are delighted to build upon the Studio’s initial success with a new cohort of leading technologists embracing 5G to transform everything from urban transit to sustainability, to industrial manufacturing and much more.”

The seven startups were selected from a cross-section of industries and disciplines, including companies specialising in autonomous robots and autonomous drone data collection, bi-directional EV charging stations, machine learning and AI, and more.

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Here is more information directly from the cohort participants outlining information about the companies and the results achieved through the 5G Studio:

e1ectr0n

  • Company Description: e1ectr0n enables high mix, low volume manufacturing with a compact benchtop robot platform, named “pr0t0n,” which assembles hardware with high precision on its own or in collaboration with humans. e1ectr0n developed the technology and know-how to design and manufacture a series of rapidly deployable, highly flexible robots and automation solutions to meet various small-scale manufacturing demands, including collaboration and teleremote operation tools in an Industry 4.0 environment networked by Verizon 5G technology.
  • 5G Application: e1ectr0n deployed the “pr0t0n” robot at Newlab’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. The robot was remotely operated from e1ectr0n’s headquarters in Oregon using Verizon’s 5G infrastructure in an Industry 4.0 environment. The remote operation leveraged computer vision to program the manufacturing process for a 6 in X 6 in music synthesiser that requires high precision and safely pauses production on detecting nearby hand movement, all in near real-time.

Fermata Energy

  • Company Description: Fermata Energy was founded to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road and the transition to renewable energy on the grid. Its V2X technology turns EVs into energy storage assets to combat climate change, increase energy resilience, and dramatically lower the cost of EV ownership. They are the leading provider of V2X solutions specialising in delivering energy services from EV batteries to the home, building or energy grid — and have the only V2X system for light-duty vehicles commercially available in the US.
  • 5G Application: Fermata Energy installed a bidirectional charger and used its proprietary V2X energy management software to perform V2X activities with a Nissan LEAF using 4G and 5G technologies. With the charger connected to Newlab’s building energy load, its testing compared peak shaving and load balancing operations of the electric grid between 4G and 5G, proving 5G’s ability to react to changes in the grid based on near real-time data and with near-zero latency. Given the density of distributed energy systems to come in the near future and the fleets of EVs connected to them, the ability to load-balance and optimise in near real-time will be necessary to deliver energy services and spark new business models vehicle owner, buildings and grids.

Iterate Labs

  • Company Description: Iterate Labs is an Industrial IoT company. Its AI-powered solution collects data from the workforce and delivers insights for efficient factory floor operation and driving automation. Iterate Labs’ wearable “delta-1” and computer vision software digitises workforce data, edge processes it, and uses cloud software to deliver the insights for maximising workforce productivity, safety, and process automation
  • 5G Application: Iterate Labs used the 5G network to enable near real-time data transfer between wearables, cameras, and their proprietary cloud software. Leveraging 5G, they were able to apply computer vision and wearable motion data processing to analyse the performance of a large workforce and factory in general in near real-time with extremely low latency.

Easy Aerial

  • Company Description: Easy Aerial is a leading provider of American-made, military-grade, autonomous drone-in-a-box-based monitoring, inspection, and surveillance solutions for commercial, government, and military applications.
  • 5G Application: Easy Aerial remotely deployed their Smart Aerial Monitoring System (SAMS) drone-in-a-box solutions, including portable charging hangars, hexacopters, and high-resolution EO/IR/Zoom payloads. Access to the Studio and MEC enabled them to test their 5G-enabled solutions and advanced processing capabilities at the “edge.” Their tests included AI-enabled object detection and telemetry transmission designed to help infrastructure, enterprise and government users unlock safe, drone-based data collection at scale. They demonstrated that ultra-low latency 5G allowed live drone video and telemetry data to be collected and transferred to and from a MEC for rapid processing and analysis.

EVPassport

  • Company Description: EVPassport is an EV charging hardware and software platform provider. They offer a fully open API for EV charging stations, allowing businesses to increase customer engagement through EV charging.
  • 5G Application: EVPassport installed three chargers at Newlab, launching the world’s First 5G-Powered EV Charging Platform, simulating the company’s ability to provide simple charging solutions for EV fleets. Leveraging 5G, they managed to reduce latency in charging sessions and orchestrate the chargers near real-time to rebalance load based on EV charging levels, for example, by prioritising power to vehicles with a lower charge.

Fantasmo

  • Company Description: Fantasmo is a platform for 3D maps and hyper-accurate positioning. The demands of location-based services (e.g., e-scooter, food delivery, ride-hailing, augmented reality) have outpaced the capabilities of GPS. Fantasmo’s Camera Positioning Service (CPS) provides hyper-accurate positioning, 20x better than GPS, for any camera and works in GPS-degraded environments, including cities and indoors.
  • 5G Application: Fantasmo tested 5G’s ability to support its hyper-accurate positioning & 3D mapping solution. Through their testing, Fantasmo was able to update their maps in near real-time using camera data and pinpoint the exact location of an e-scooter moving between geofences. This opens up the opportunity to enable hyperlocal positioning for various mobile platforms, including delivery robots, drones, HMDs, handheld devices, and autonomous vehicles. The positioning service is 20x more accurate than GPS and works in diverse environments, including urban streets and factories.

Sojourn

  • Company Description: Sojourn offers proprietary computer vision that enables last-mile delivery service providers to complete deliveries within a centimetre of accuracy to pinpoints determined by their customers at homes, businesses, and other locations. This unique system empowers both human and robotic couriers to complete delivery missions precisely to persistent pinpoints that their customers have established with no additional hardware requirements.
  • 5G Application: Sojourn utilised the 5G network to create and access hyper-accurate maps that enabled a drone to quickly locate user-defined points in Newlab, simulating a 5G-enabled last-mile delivery solution. Additionally, a total migration of Sojourn’s Cloud services to the 5G Studio’s MEC was completed and utilised in testing and demonstration.

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“We are thrilled to announce the exciting results of this year’s 5G Studio cohort’s work, the products of months-long efforts conducted through close collaboration and sustained engagement between Verizon, Newlab and the Studio startups using Verizon’s network and capabilities,” said Shaun Stewart, CEO of Newlab. “Through the 5G Studio we continue to support the world’s leading experts and innovators as they test solutions with truly revolutionary potential for how we live and work. The results of these tests will shape continued innovation applying 5G to a focused set of critical industry challenges.”

This year’s 5G Studio, launched in early 2021, follows last year’s successful Studio, which saw the testing of numerous unique and transformative technologies.

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Amber Donovan-Stevens

Amber is a Content Editor at Top Business Tech

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