SK Telecom, Samsung set sail with 5G autonomous navigation platform

SK Telecom and Samsung Heavy Industries set sail with their 5G-based autonomous navigation platform, which will allow ships to move and set destinations on their own. Samsung provided 3.3m craft for the trial, which SK Telecom equipped with LIDAR — a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth — at a shipyard covered by its 5G network. The companies then set the ship’s destination from a control center located 250km away in Daejeon City. The ship’s safe arrival at the set destination was confirmed using an SKT real-time video monitoring platform. SK Telecom said it successfully recognized and avoided obstacles. They were also able to remotely control and monitor the ship from the control center through using the telco’s 5G network. Choi Il-gyu, VP and head of SKT’s B2B business office expressed optimism about the results of trial, commenting that it “marks a meaningful step towards commercialization of technologies for autonomous navigation of ships powered by 5G.”