Workshop on vehicular teleoperation and future wireless networks for participants of the "SchnupperUni"

The "SchnupperUni" (more information on the TU Dortmund university site) is an offer to invite pupils from 10th grade onwards and other interested guests to visit the TU Dortmund university and participate in example lectures and workshops to get an idea of campus life. Within this venue, the CNI offered a workshop where several 5G and 6G-related research platforms were demonstrated and questions could be asked.

Starting with a brief introduction, our guests were shown the mobile wireless communication lab which is a modified van with multi-network technology support for ad-hoc deployments in fields. In combination with rescue robotic platforms it can be used to provide communication capabilities and explore hazardous areas in a safe manner for human personnel. A use case all attendees could see the high relevance due to the current wildfire risk in Europe, but also for other situations like events or industrial campuses, the benefits of private 5G networks could be explained.

As a next highlight we held a live demonstration of the Spot robot, which is a dog-like walking robot that can cross challenging terrains and is equipped with different payloads for exploration tasks and a communication stack to be safely teleoperated in every situation. This platform is part of the 6GEM research hub, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research. Within 6GEM the TU Dortmund aims to contribute to the reserach of future 6G networks to be introduced around 2030.    

After these first impressions it was time to ask questions. The guests were noticably endorsed by the wide range of aspects communication brings along and wanted to know more about use cases, how public and private 5G/6G networks work, what the differences to their WiFi at home is, and much more. Having all open issues addressed, it was time to devote to the different study programs our faculty offers and discuss how a Bachelor's and the subsequent Master's program are organized. Here we could give examples on what lectures, labs, and excercises exist and how final theses are structured.

The last part of the event was the 5G teleoperation showcase. Inspired by two recent publications on predictive Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) evaluation in this context, we explained our visitors how research questions are formulated, investigated, and, finally, the results being submitted to international conferences. For the vehicular teleoperation a racetrack was marked on the ground and could be driven with our small-scaled F1/10 platform. The guests challenged themselves for the best lap time which was captured by the evaluation of position data, that was received over the private 5G network and processed in a purely digital representation of the environment.

It was an informative and fun event. The CNI wishes the visitors all the best for their final stage of school path, and hopes to see you back at TU Dortmund university soon.