Mona Neubaur, Minister of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy and Deputy Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, visited the Port of Duisburg on June 7, 2024 to get to know the innovative 5G project “5G smart.logport Duisburg.”
Duisburg, June 07, 2024
Mona Neubaur, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy as well as Deputy Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, visited the Port of Duisburg on June 7, 2024 to get to know the innovative 5G project “5G smart.logport Duisburg”. As a project partner, the University of Duisburg-Essen coordinated research and development work. The project is being carried out as part of the 5G.NRW competition and is supported by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with around one million euros in funding.
During her visit to the Port of Duisburg on June 7, 2024, NRW Minister of Economic Affairs Mona Neubaur found out about the innovative 5G project “5G smart.logport Duisburg” as part of the 5G.NRW competition.
The minister's participation shows the importance of the 5G project for economic development and innovation in North Rhine-Westphalia. Mona Neubaur: “As one of the most important logistics locations in the heart of Europe, it is important for the Port of Duisburg to remain internationally competitive in the future and to position itself digitally, sustainably and efficiently with the help of smart solutions. An important step towards this is the innovative “5G smart.logport Duisburg” project, which combines the industrial, logistics and telecommunications sectors that are central to North Rhine-Westphalia in an exemplary manner. I am certain that the groundbreaking project from the 5G.NRW competition will decisively advance the digital transformation of the Port of Duisburg with financial support from the state and strong partners. ”
The 5G project focuses on setting up a test field in the Port of Duisburg, in which mobile radio technology for the partially automated control of port cranes is being tested. The project goal is to increase container handling capacities and thus increase efficiency in port operations. The public kick-off of the project took place on November 3, 2022 in Duisburg's inner harbor.
Until now, semi-automatic control of mobile handling equipment in inland ports has not been possible. The project is now intended to create the technical conditions for this in Duisburg for the first time. The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Duisburger Hafen AG (duisport), Deutsche Telekom, represented by T-Systems and Detecon International, and the duisport subsidiaries startport GmbH and POLO KNOW-HOW Industrie-Engineering GmbH and the city of Duisburg as an associated partner are involved. Project coordinator Prof. Dr. Andreas Stöhr from the University of Duisburg-Essen explains the research project: “The UDE has developed central parts of the digital infrastructure for semi-automatic crane control and high-precision satellite and radar-based positioning systems and integrated them into the 5G campus network of the Port of Duisburg. These sensors record the exact position data of the containers and transmit them to the central control center. In addition, the university has installed high-speed radio links that make it possible to immediately transmit videos from remote camera systems to the control center. ”
The D3T terminal on logport I is the pilot area where, among other things, the partially automated control of container cranes is being tested through the use of 5G technology. The project participants presented the current progress of the project here.
“We were happy to support the project because testing automation is important for sustainable logistics,” explains Michael Rüscher, Head of Economic Affairs of City of Duisburg. “In Duisburg, we can barely provide any additional logistics space. It is therefore important to optimize efficiency and processes in order to be able to further expand at the site. ”
“The Port of Duisburg is not only one of the most important and largest logistics hubs in Europe, it is also a center for innovation and digitization in logistics,” says Duisport-CEO Markus Bangen. “The partially automated control of container cranes enables us to make processes at the terminals significantly more efficient and noticeably relieve our crane operators of their physically demanding work. ”
Mathias Poeten, head of the mobile network Telekom Germany: “At Deutsche Telekom, we not only supply the 5G infrastructure here in Duisburg, but are also researching and developing new 5G fields of application for greater efficiency in port logistics together with our project partners. Today, we were able to vividly demonstrate that the particularly powerful and secure 5G technology is an important driver for the digitization of logistics processes — and creates a real haven for innovation in Duisburg. ”
UDERector, Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert, points out the importance of engineering at the location: “With 5G research, electrical engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen is at the forefront of Germany. This makes logistics innovations possible here on the Rhine and Ruhr that are still unthinkable elsewhere. ”
📸 Photos: Marco Stepniak/duisport
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