With the research project “5G in the National Park Region” (5GNPR), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport, technologies related to the 5G mobile communications standard are being advanced. People as well as companies in the region are to benefit from attractive conditions with regard to digitalization. The research project contributes to this in various subject areas. At the "kick-off", project representatives and partners from the ILE National Park communities met in Spiegelau to present the project and the involvement of the individual partners.

With a funding amount of four million euros and a project duration of three years - starting on January 1 of this year until the end of 2024, the project will develop innovative solutions to demonstrate the benefits of 5G in the region. 5G has a higher data rate than LTE, for example, has lower delay times and can bring many devices into one radio cell. This can increase the region's attractiveness for people as well as businesses.

The project partners will research and prototype various fields of application in the thematic areas of "Mobility, Transport and Tourism", "Forestry and Nature", "Rescue and Health" and "Smart Infrastructures".

On the part of b-plus technologies, together with the partners Schiller Automatisierungstechnik and DB Regio, an autonomous, electric bus shuttle is planned to supplement public transport operations. b-plus will equip this bus with additional "eyes" (sensors such as cameras and LIDAR). By means of these sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) methods will be used to obtain additional information from the surroundings, which will be made available to traffic and visitor management in the form of value-added services (e.g. visitor numbers at stops, parking space occupancy). In addition, b-plus will equip the bus with the latest measurement technology and high-performance compute solutions for recording and processing large amounts of data, which will be directly connected to a cloud via 5G.

In other work packages, partners such as the Technical University of Deggendorf (consortium leadership), aeroDCS GmbH, Elektra Solar GmbH, 3D Reality Maps GmbH, Spekter GmbH and the ILE National Park communities will use drones, for example, to evaluate real-time data using AI and thus detect pest infestations at an early stage. Furthermore, telemedical applications are also planned through the connection with 5G.

Bernhard Pfeffer, Head of Applied Research and Data Analytics/AI as well as project manager of the research project at b-plus technologies, is very pleased about the participation: "With our expertise and solutions in the field of automated driving, we can contribute very well to making this exciting project a success for the people and participating companies in the region."

picture source and text parts: Sarah Koschinski, PNP