Nokia to set up robotics lab at IISc to study 5G's 'socially relevant' uses

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia on Tuesday announced a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru to establish a network robotics laboratory for research on socially relevant use cases based on 5G and emerging technologies.

The Nokia Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Networked Robotics will promote interdisciplinary research involving robotics, advanced communication technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop use cases across areas like emergency management, agriculture and industrial automation, the company said.

The centre will promote engagement and cooperation between academia, start-ups and industry ecosystem partners in research and development of use cases.

The centre supports and aligns with the government's initiatives of Start-up India.

The Nokia CoE will be available to the IISc community and its ecosystem partners for advanced research projects involving designing next-generation networks and applications of Artificial Intelligence for solving pertinent social problems.

"Collaboration with a global technology leader, Nokia, will go a long way in helping our students to gain knowledge and insights and make significant contributions to the development of innovative and societally relevant 5G use cases," Professor G Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said in a statement.

"This is a critical initiative and it will help us move closer to finding technology-powered solutions to enrich our lives."

Some of the use cases which the collaboration will explore include using drones for remote management of agricultural orchards to promote water conservation and avoid human contact with pesticide.

The researchers will also explore other use cases such as drones using a 5G-enabled wide-area network to gather situational information, helping first responders to save lives by quickly accessing the affected areas during disaster relief and drones for applications such as anticipating crop fires.

The collaboration aims to help IISc in capacity building and human resources development in cutting-edge technology of robotics, 5G and autonomous systems.

"Emerging technologies such as the 5G have potential to enable an entirely new array of use cases with a profound societal impact," said Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President and Head of India Market, Nokia.

"With Nokia's rich innovation heritage, we aim to engage with the bright and young minds at IISc to nurture and advance the latest technologies that can benefit communities. We are confident that it will lead to the development of groundbreaking use cases."