Nokia and Bosch have jointly developed a 5G-based precision positioning system tailored for Industry 4.0 applications.
They deployed a proof of concept at a Bosch production facility in Germany, where comprehensive tests under realistic manufacturing conditions demonstrated positioning accuracy within 50 cm for 90% of the factory floor.
This positioning solution tracks mobile and portable devices connected to a 5G network, accurately locating them in environments without global navigation satellite coverage, such as factories, warehouses, or underground facilities. During the factory trial, an enhanced private 5G network pinpointed assets like automated guided vehicles (AGVs), mobile robots and handheld control panels—monitoring their movements across the plant in real time.
Conventional 5G positioning estimates location by measuring the travel time of signals between a mobile device and multiple base stations or anchor nodes. Signals take longer to reach more distant nodes, allowing the system to triangulate the device’s location. Nokia and Bosch enhanced this approach by equipping 5G nodes with multiple receive antennas, enabling the network to detect incoming signal angles as well as time delays. Advanced algorithms from Nokia Bell Labs combine time-delay and angle-of-arrival data to compute the most likely device position. Their proof of concept achieves accuracy well beyond current cellular positioning capabilities, illustrating what future public and private 5G networks can deliver.
High-precision localization is critical for numerous industrial use cases, including robot navigation, asset tracking and worker safety. Delivering both robust connectivity and accurate positioning from a single private network reduces IT complexity, lowers total cost of ownership, and improves return on investment.
Andreas Mueller, chief expert responsible for 6G activities at Bosch, said: “Knowing where things are is generally very valuable in manufacturing. Today, connecting and locating devices often requires separate systems; an integrated private 5G solution could provide both. The joint proof of concept with Nokia reinforces Bosch’s leading role in exploring new opportunities for customers and advancing the Factory of the Future.”
Nokia and Bosch have worked together for several years, beginning a strategic collaboration in 2017 focused on industrial IoT and sensing solutions. The announcement of precise 5G positioning marks an important milestone but is just one of many innovations the partners are pursuing. The two companies are also researching next-generation networking, exploring how future 6G systems might combine communications and sensing when they become commercially available later this decade.
While 5G can determine the location of devices that are connected to the network, 6G is expected to identify the position of virtually any object, whether it carries an active radio or not. In effect, 6G signals could function similarly to radar, giving systems situational awareness that extends beyond traditional sensing methods.
Peter Vetter, president of Bell Labs Core Research at Nokia, commented: “Bosch and Nokia Bell Labs envision networks that do much more than enable communication. Soon, 5G will track connected devices more precisely than satellites in locations satellites cannot reach. Over the next decade, 6G will sense all objects in coverage areas regardless of whether they have active radios. We are building networks that will provide people with a digital sixth sense.”
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