APDL AND NOS PRESENT THE FIRST 5G PORT IN PORTUGAL
APDL AND NOS PRESENT THE FIRST 5G PORT IN PORTUGAL
- Port of Leixões pioneers the use of 5G Drones to monitor risky manoeuvres in real time
- Drones are equipped with sensors that measure the impacts of the operation on the environment
- NOS' 5G contributes to safety and efficiency of operations
Since 2019, Matosinhos has been a living laboratory of innovation, to which NOS has actively contributed, making the city smarter and applying 5G technology to projects that contribute to increasing its efficiency and competitiveness in several areas, particularly in industry.
It is in this context that NOS and APDL - Administration of the Ports of Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo - present the First 5G Port in Portugal. Fully covered with the fifth-generation NOS mobile network, the Port of Leixões can now count on significant increases in terms of competitiveness, efficiency and safety in the management of this major national infrastructure.
In 2020, and even with the effect of the pandemic, the port of Leixões handled about 17.1 million tonnes. In this context, it reached a new historical maximum of 703,919 TEUS (unit of measurement equivalent to a 20-foot container), growing 2.6% compared to 2019, which suggests not only a resilience of import and export companies operating in its area of influence, but also the ability of the port ecosystem to adapt quickly to changing market conditions. Leixões is the country's leading export port in containerised cargo and overall, contributes 7% of employment in Portugal and 6% of national GDP.
The partnership with NOS will allow APDL to monitor these complex operations using 5G Drones, equipped with cameras capable of transmitting, in real time, high-quality video images to the control room.
With these remote monitoring means, both the operations centre and the ship pilots can follow a set of higher risk manoeuvres, simultaneously increasing the capacity to carry out on-site inspections with greater frequency, flexibility and safety, as well as enabling fundamental support in response management and mitigation in the event of incidents.
The 5G Drones are also prepared to be equipped with environmental, noise and air quality sensors, capable of measuring the impacts of each operation in real time and directly on site.
Besides this tool, the NOS and APDL teams are also studying the best way to take advantage of augmented reality and digital twin technology to make the machinery maintenance and logistics processes more efficient, implementing sensing IOT to know in real time the location and status of all assets.
According to Manuel Ramalho Eanes, Executive Director of NOS, "5G, as a fundamental piece of what is Industry 4.0, allows us to define what is the future of competitiveness of companies in the most diverse sectors. Thanks to the 5G-based solutions that we are implementing, the Port of Leixões, one of the most relevant national infrastructures, will be able to strengthen its competitive position, not only in the Iberian context, but also in the European one."
According to Nuno Araújo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of APDL, "Today, technology is probably the most relevant competitiveness factor for an infrastructure such as ours. We want to carry out our operations in the fastest, safest and most efficient way possible. Therefore, for the Port of Leixões it is absolutely critical to use innovative technologies such as 5G in order to enhance our digital transformation process and thus increase our productivity and improve our positioning.
5G promises to be the main accelerator of the 4th industrial revolution. Through its high speeds, hyper-reduced latencies and massive connections, the fifth generation of mobile communications will contribute to leverage a set of relevant use cases and bring new applications that promise to change the way companies work and society functions.
