The 29th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA) 2024 took place from 10 to 13 September 2024 in Padova, Italy. This conference brings together professionals from industry and academia to share cutting-edge concepts, recent developments, research results, and practical achievements in industrial and factory automation. The key goal is to foster the enhancement and application of scientific techniques, models, and tools that support the efficient design and operation of industrial and factory automation systems. Several PREDICT-6G partners were there to present work related to the project.

Pietro Giuseppe Giardina from Nextworks was invited to talk in the Industry Forum of the conference. In the talk, titled ‘Bringing determinism in private mobile networks for Industry 5.0 scenarios: opportunities and challenges’,  he explained the benefits of adopting 5G/6G technologies in the industry and how the research can foster such an adoption with two example projects: PREDICT-6G and Zero-SWARM.

Pietro G. Giardina from Netxworks

In the Technical Track “TSN in Industrial Systems”, Claudio Zunino, principal investigator of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), presented the paper ‘Time-Sensitive Networking and Software-Defined Networking: an experimental setup for realistic performances’. Written by the CNR, Intel, the University of Padova (all members of the PREDICT-6G consortium), and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, this paper investigates the integration between Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) to enable dynamic network re-configuration and improve performance for time-critical applications. The paper can be read and downloaded here.

Claudio Zunino from CNR

During the “Industrial Communication Technologies and Systems” session, Prof. Zunino presented the paper IEEE 1588 (PTP) over mmWave 5G NR: preliminary assessment of the synchronization accuracy for TSN applications’ produced by PREDICT-6G partners CNR and the University of Padova, as well as by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The paper discusses the extension of TSN to wireless domains for realising the Industry 4.0 and 5.0 applications. It focuses on the assessment of the synchronization accuracy of IEEE 1588 (PTP) over 5G NR networks. 

Lastly, INTEL, CNR and the University of Padova presented the ‘Time-Sensitive Networking for Trajectory Tracking of an Unmanned Ground Vehicle over Wi-Fi paper in the Special Session – Exploring the limits of Time Sensitive Networking. Utilising the IEEE 802.1AS standard for wireless time synchronization, this study investigates the impact of clock synchronization errors and latency on trajectory tracking in a wireless network scenario involving an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). It demonstrates the capability and benefits of IEEE 802.1AS in managing device clocks and facilitating time correction to ensure precise trajectory tracking despite synchronization errors and latency.

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