Select UK cows already sporting 5G devices

While the rollout of 5G in the US is scattered in a few places, the 5G wireless feed is already in place for several herds of cows in the United Kingdom.

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Bringing 5G to agriculture

The US company Cisco Systems is already testing infrastructure for the global rollout of 5G that can be used by various industries, beyond the traditional tech bubble, including agriculture.

At three different rural locations, Cisco is giving farmers access to 5G connected cow collars plus health-monitoring ear tags that are capable of transmitting biometric data. This will enable workers to monitor the herd from a distance.

Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre or Agri-Epi Centre

The Agri-Epi Centre is in the small town of Shepton Mallet in southwest UK. The centre's farm has nearly one third of its 180 herd of cows fitted with the 5G collars and tags.

The collars and tags make monitoring the cows from a distance quite simple. The cows are often spread out in different areas of the farm, but with the tags and collars farmers can keep tabs on the animals all day without having to travel to where the cows happen to be at a given time.

Duncan Forbes, Project Manager at the Agri-Epi Centre said: “We are testing the ability of 5G to transmit the data from our sensors much quicker, and not via the farm’s PC and a slow broadband internet connection. And the significance of that is it means that this sort of technology could be taken up ... not just on farms but on rural communities right across the country.”

Communicating with the robotic milking system

The smart collars also help automate the milking process by wirelessly communicating with a "robotic milking system that lets the cow approach the station at its own leisure, pass through the gates after an ID check, and hook up to the robot all with little to no human intervention."

Nick Chrissos of Cisco said: “We can connect every cow, we can connect every animal on this farm.That’s what 5G can do for farming — really unleash the power that we have within this farm, everywhere around the UK and everywhere around the world.”

While there are pilot studies of 5G use throughout the world, the first nation wide coverage with 5G is not expected in countries such as China, the US or Japan until about 2023 according to industry analysts. 5G has already been rolled out in the US in a few areas of Chicago and Minneapolis.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

California sets out regulations to testing light duty autonomous trucks

California would allow testing of light-duty autonomous trucks on public roads under a rule announced last Friday. The California Department of Motor Vehicles outlines a permitting process for any companies wanting to test or deploy driverless trucks.

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Only certain lighter trucks would be eligible

The regulations governing autonomous vehicles in California can be found here. The announcement of the proposed regulationssays in part the following: "The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) released proposed regulations today that establish a path for companies to test or deploy light-duty autonomous motor trucks (delivery vehicles) on the state’s public roads. The release of these regulations marks the start of a 45-day public comment period, which ends May 27, 2019.Under the proposed regulations, companies can test autonomous delivery vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds with an approved permit from the DMV – provided they do not charge a delivery fee. Companies must apply for a deployment (public use) permit to make their autonomous technology commercially available. The DMV’s regulations continue to exclude the testing or deployment of autonomous vehicles weighing more than 10,001 pounds."

The regulations cover only Class 1 and 2 trucks which would include minivans, pickup trucks utility vans and step vans. However, autonomous vehicles in Class 3 through 8 are not allowed to test or deploy under the regulations. These would include walk-in delivery vans, semi-trucks, buses, or heavy-duty construction trucks.

California allows considerable autonomous vehicle testing

Since California has many autonomous vehicle testing programs, big companies such as General Motors, Waymo, and Uber, who are all in the process of development of autonomous vehicles, closely monitor any proposed new rules. California at present has 62 companies and 678 vehicles licensed through the DMV. However, Waymo is the only company so far that has a permit that allows it to test fully autonomous cars with no driver on public roads.

The new rules may be a step towards allowing vehicles such as heavy duty semi trucks (Class 8) to be tested on public roads. At present, Waymo is carrying out such tests in Atlanta Georgia. Other companies are also working on fully autonomous trucks such as Daimler, and TuSimple. Ford, Nuro, and Udeiv which are already permitted to test driverless vehicles under the DMV program will now be able to test light trucks as well.

.Previously  published in Digital Journal