Importance of a 5G Network for Construction Sites: Limitation of WLAN in 3D Sensing Applications

Teleoperated construction machinery dominates construction sites, as it can, with relatively little effort, prevent operators from working in dangerous conditions by keeping them in the control loop. However, the operators usually have to execute tasks with limited situational information due to poor depth perception from 2D camera images, reducing local accuracy and work efficiency. Thus, 3D sensing technology such as depth cameras is used more and more in combination with the teleoperated construction machinery. As these depth cameras are preferably mounted on a mobile robot to prevent the occlusion and observe the remote work place from several viewpoints, the corresponding on-site Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that can cover the required data transmission are of great importance for further developments. This paper presents a robotic platform capable of navigating and providing the 3D point cloud data of the remote work place from different viewpoints according to the operator’s input. The captured information is transferred to the operator using the standard network Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). To that end, first, the limitation of the WLAN in 3D sensing applications and the needs of the Fifth-Generation (5G) of mobile networks are jointly analyzed within the presented use case. Finally, the characteristics of 5G that address the test results are identified.