Advanced Info Service (AIS) has partnered with AI & Robotics Ventures (ARV), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), to deploy an artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous drone system on the intelligent 5G wireless network for the first time in Thailand.
The partnership paves the way for Wangchan Valley, or Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation, in Rayong province to be a hub for developing and testing solutions for real-time use cases, according to AIS.
The valley was organised by PTT and National Science and Technology Development Agency.
According to Tanapong Ittisakulchai, chief enterprise business officer of AIS, the company and PTT Group began the collaboration in 2018 through the deployment of the 5G network and platforms to build a digital infrastructure as part of Wangchan Valley.
Both AIS and ARV developed a platform for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as autonomous drones, for various industrial use cases.
The use of autonomous drones was upgraded to the 5G AI Autonomous Drone System (Horrus), the first developed by Thai engineers and the initial drone system to be powered by an intelligent 5G system using autonomous network technology.
Wangchan Valley is equipped with smart city infrastructure for the regulatory and innovation sandboxes in four areas: UAVs, autonomous vehicles, energy innovation and specialised spectra.
"This represents the transformation of drone capabilities to play a greater role in industry and reduces the risks of operating in hazardous or restricted locations," Mr Tanapong said.
He said AIS is transforming to become a cognitive technology company by 2024.
"We generate mutual growth by working with a range of partners to support digital transformation in various national industrial sectors," said Mr Tanapong.
AIS has collaborated with PTT as a strategic partner to develop technologies for many industries. The partnership includes investment in digital infrastructure to support innovation projects in Wangchan Valley.
The AIS engineering team completed the network architecture for 5G standalone on the 2600-megahertz frequency, for which the company has owned the spectrum licence since 2020.
The network architecture leverages the potential of autonomous network technology for autonomous network management, the use of network slicing methods to support applications running on the network, as well as multi-access Edge computing to support the network management, he said.
Thana Slanvetpan, general manager of ARV, said the drone system represents another use case that has attained some measure of success and is being rolled out for real-world applications.
Wangchan Valley is an appropriate venue for trials and experimentation as there are special waivers and relaxed regulations to facilitate scientific tests and innovation using drone technology under the UAV regulatory sandbox, he said.
"The 5G and network slicing technologies speed up data transmission and reduce latency, which is crucial when controlling a drone," said Mr Thana.
He said the drone system supports remote use with greater stability than using radio signals and WiFi.
The collaboration with AIS upgrades the potential of drone technology to the next level, said Mr Thana. The drones work autonomously along predetermined flight paths and times. They can monitor abnormal activity and send alerts back to the control centre in real time. For instance, drones can monitor work in a factory, a natural gas survey location or a natural gas processing plant of PTT Group.
