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Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction

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Dr Manu Sasidharan, CSIC Research Associate, appears in the UK5G Innovation Network’s latest post entitled ‘Faces of 5G’, which introduces the people working on the Port of Felixstowe’s project.

The Port of Felixstowe is an important national infrastructure that needs to operate 365 days a year, 24/7. The project, funded by the UK’s  Department for Culture, Media and Sports, harnesses the technology of the 5G Internet of Things (IoT) to reduce unplanned downtime of cranes and increase the efficiency of ship-to-shore quay cranes.

Dr Sasidharan’s research centres on resilience and management of critical transport infrastructure specialising in asset management of transport infrastructure, but in this project he is working on predictive maintenance of cranes. Dr Sasidharan is working with a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Asset Management Group at the Institute for Manufacturing to create an Artificial Intelligence System that will use data collected from sensors to predict malfunction or faults on cranes and identify issues before they impact crane operation.

The team is led by CSIC Investigator Dr Ajith Kumar Parlikad and Dr Sasidharan’s role involves coordinating interactions among project partners such as Port of Felixstowe, Three UK and Blue Mesh Solutions, as well as looking after the predictive maintenance of cranes.

5G technology can play an important part in boosting efficiency and safety in complex projects, while increasing capability of the workforce through the acquisitions of new skills. As nearly 90% of global trade is via shipping, this technology could benefit all countries and it can also be deployed within construction assets and transport infrastructure, such as railways.

Read the blog post here  

Read an article about the project, entitled ‘How 5G technology could unlock new opportunities at ports and across industry’ by Dr Ajith Parlikad, here 

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