Remote sensing and data fusion integration for Industrial logistics in Rural Areas with 6G - ENSURE-6G

Sweden, Finland, and Norway share the same challenge with large rural areas and long supply chains which is a prerequisite and a lifeline for regional growth and development. Trends show that the supply chain and logistics require fast-paced efforts toward intelligent and automated operations for increased efficiency, transparency, safety, and competitiveness. This challenge could be addressed with the ICT-driven green transition to identify the requirements and issues early and react proactively. This project aims to develop symbiotic functions or digital enablers of the industrial logistics framework in rural areas. The project focuses on the use case of railway network to be able to demonstrate TRL 4- 6 level solutions.

The inter-regional challenges are:

1. The sparse population making conventional solutions economically infeasible
2. challenging weather requiring unique remote sensing capabilities, and
3. the need to automate key processes to increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

The project's objective is to create data-driven automation solutions enabled by robust wireless connectivity, and attract talents to this region by creating the North-Nordic inter-regional ICT Belt, which is a key requirement for the region’s sustainable growth and development.

The expected results of this project are holistic guidelines for implementing sensing/connectivity infrastructure, data transparency and traceability for supply chain workflow while promoting inclusive industrialization, data analytics-driven visualization and optimization of supply chain workflow for the various stakeholders, control and communication system design and principles for remote/autonomous operations, sensor fusion and positioning-based situational awareness platform for workers and road safety, demonstrating TRL-5/6 by implementation/validation of developed cross-border technology tools in real-life field trials, and potential product development based on the project findings.