As 5G continues to work wonders for enterprises, Qualcomm is making sure it remains part of the excitement as well. While the chip company continues to innovate the industry with its chipsets for mobile devices, it has also enabled 5G to scale and revolutionize the robotics industry.

5G is already expected to bring robotics to a whole new level with more capabilities. From healthcare to the manufacturing industry, modern robotics including collaborative robots (or cobots) and automated robotics are becoming increasingly important in solving tasks. In fact, the global market for industrial robots was valued at US$ 43.8 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach US$70.6 billion by 2028.

Realizing this, many companies, including Qualcomm are working towards developing more robotic solutions to cater to more use cases and the increasing demand by different sectors in various industries. With a key focus on logistics and aerial mobility, Qualcomm is working on 5G and premium AI-enabled robotics, drones and intelligent machine solutions that will empower more productive, intelligent, and advanced robots, unlocking new possibilities with critical intelligence and maximum efficiency.

During its annual 5G Summit event, Qualcomm unveiled an expanded roadmap of cutting-edge 5G and edge-AI robotics solutions with the introduction of the Qualcomm Robotics RB6 Platform and the Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference Design.

Expected to support the creation of more productive, autonomous, and advanced robots, Qualcomm Technologies’ latest advanced edge-AI and robotics solutions will help unlock new commercial realities including AMRs, delivery robots, highly automated manufacturing robots, collaborative robots, UAM aircraft, industrial drone infrastructure, autonomous defense solutions, and beyond.

The new technologies are expected to unleash cutting-edge applications and possibilities to create smarter and safer robots and environments. This includes enhanced autonomy for delivery robots roaming the streets and seamless fleet management coordination across AMRs in industrial spaces. It will also enable real-time data and insights that empower critical decision-making across manufacturing and logistics as well as provide next-generation intelligence to support safe and autonomous urban air mobility transportation.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB6 Platform and the Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference Design will support evolving applications for OEMs and robot manufacturers looking to integrate ground robots in industrial use cases across sectors including government service applications, logistics, healthcare, retail, warehousing, agriculture, construction, utilities, and more. The new solutions will accelerate the digital transformation of industries and serve as a key enabler for Industry 4.0.

“Building on the successful growth and traction of Qualcomm Technologies’ leading robotics solutions, our expanded roadmap of solutions will help bring enhanced AI and 5G technologies to support smarter, safer, and more advanced innovations across robotics, drones, and intelligent machines,” said Dev Singh, Senior Director of Business Development and Head of Autonomous Robotics, Drones and Intelligent Machines at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

For Singh, Qualcomm is fueling robotics innovations with 5G connectivity and premium edge-AI that will transform how enterprises think and approach challenges and ever-evolving industry expectations in the digital economy.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB6 platform sits at the premium tier of Qualcomm Technologies’ robotics solutions, delivering expanded capabilities that take enterprise and industrial robotics innovation to the next level with enhanced AI and 5G. The new solution delivers state-of-the-art 5G connectivity with support for global sub-6GHz and mmWave bands in mainstream, enterprise, and private networks.

As the robotics platforms have a flexible architecture with expansion cards, they will be able to support evolving connectivity features allowing the Qualcomm Robotics RB6 platform to deliver support for 3GPP Release 15, and Releases 16, 17 and 18 features as cards become available in the future. The elevated platform brings best-in-class, premium, edge AI and video processing capabilities through the enhanced Qualcomm AI Engine, with support for 70 – 200 Trillion-Operations-Per-Second (TOPS) (INT8).

Meanwhile, the Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference design is the world’s first AMR reference design to offer tightly integrated enhanced AI and 5G-capabilities. This new solution helps accelerate the development of commercial, enterprise, and industrial robots, unleashing innovative possibilities for industries looking to adopt robotics solutions and realize the benefits of the solutions at the connected intelligent edge.