Rows of large rotary drilling rigs are neatly lined up, tall drill pipes reaching straight into the sky, and among them are the world's tallest pile frame, the excavator with the longest boom, and the industry's largest back-tilted mast rotary drilling rig... Walking on the debugging yard of Sunward in the Changsha Economic and Technological Development Zone in Hunan Province, the reporter was deeply struck by this "steel forest" and could not help but reflect that behind China's rise as an "infrastructure maniac," such innovative large-scale equipment has played an indispensable role.

Even more incredible is that these giant "Optimus Primes" are linked by invisible technologies such as the Internet of Things and 5G networks. No matter how far away they are, they can be remotely operated and controlled by operators thousands of miles away through the engineering equipment 5G remote control takeover platform, demonstrating their prowess in emergency rescue, hazardous locations, and other construction operations.

Founded in 1999, Sunward Equipment Group has grown in step with the rapid advancement of China's infrastructure and manufacturing industries. It has now developed into a leading domestic enterprise in underground engineering equipment, ranked among the global top 50 construction machinery enterprises and the world's top 3 regional aircraft leasing companies, and was selected as one of China's top 50 intelligent manufacturing enterprises.

On September 17, 2020, during an inspection at Sunward, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that independent innovation is the lifeblood of an enterprise and the foundation for it to overcome obstacles and grow stronger; core key technologies must be firmly held in our own hands.

In recent years, bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions, Sunward has accelerated its pace on the road of scientific and technological innovation, cooperated deeply with China Unicom on "5G + Industrial Internet," promoted the rapid upgrading of application equipment for 5G and various scenarios, and leveraged digital, networked, and intelligent technologies to help Sunward and the industry achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement as well as high-quality, safe, and green development.‍

5G Empowers Intelligent Manufacturing to Reach New Heights

Several steel plates, after automatic assembly, transfer, positioning, and welding, become a complete excavator boom in just over 10 minutes. In the smart workshop of Phase III of Sunward Industrial City, the reporter saw materials flowing automatically, robotic arms docking precisely, and RGV (rail-guided vehicles) moving flexibly... It was like a scene from a science fiction movie reproduced.

Zhu Jianxin, deputy general manager of Sunward, introduced that in the smart workshop of Phase III of Sunward Industrial City, the company focused on building automated product production lines and digital workshops, as well as five intelligent production lines for two key components—the excavator boom and arm. Through the application of intelligent production lines, annual production capacity has increased sixfold compared with the past; the production cycle for one excavator rolling off the line has been shortened by 50%; and the number of personnel can be reduced by 50%.

Qian Kang, an engineer at Sunward, told the reporter that these intelligent production lines all have full coverage of the China Unicom 5G network, and the main equipment is connected through the 5G network. Core components all have QR codes, i.e., identity markers, and scanning the code reveals the stage they are in. All the data behind these intelligent production lines is gathered into the middle platform—the "Xiangyun Platform"—for intelligent overall coordination and full-process control of production. The "Xiangyun Platform" carried on China Unicom's 5G+MEC private network is the smart steward of the workshop, building Sunward's digital foundation and installing a "smart brain" on various mechanical equipment. This clever "steward" can fully integrate the originally fragmented links of management, R&D, manufacturing, products, and construction, forming a service system based on massive data collection, aggregation, and analysis, and realizing the "humanized" and "intelligent" operation of various smart manufacturing equipment. For example, during aviation flight operations, the "5G + general aviation black box" can upload airspace data to the Sunward Xiangyun Platform and conduct real-time data analysis, assisting in adjusting the UAV flight status through the platform, troubleshooting hidden dangers in advance, and providing reference for flight training and aircraft development. Speaking of the original intention of the enterprise's innovative transformation, Zhu Jianxin told the reporter that since its founding, Sunward has adhered to the "pilot innovation" model. In recent years, while continuously improving its independent innovation capability, the company has recognized that the Industrial Internet has become a key support for industrial innovation and transformation and is of great significance for promoting industrial digital, networked, and intelligent development. Therefore, it has highlighted intelligent manufacturing as the main direction, accelerated the integrated innovative application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and big data with high-end equipment, and explored a new "smart manufacturing" model of digital integration across the product life cycle. Whether it is solving the problem of insufficient supply of skilled workers, the stability of product quality, or eliminating non-value-creating links oriented toward lean manufacturing goals, "5G + Industrial Internet" is the optimal path. Driven by Sunward's advanced digital strategy and with the full support of China Unicom, the company was rated as one of Hunan Province's first batch of "5G + Industrial Internet" demonstration factories and a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology "5G + Industrial Internet" demonstration project, and won honors including the Excellence Award in the national finals of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Fourth "Blooming Cup" 5G Application Collection Competition, becoming an industry benchmark for intelligence.‍

5G Remote Control Helps Build Smart Mines

At the entrance of the excavator manufacturing plant in Sunward Industrial City, a remote control cabin marked with the China Unicom 5G logo stands out. An excavator operator is remotely controlling a rotary drilling rig more than 600 kilometers away at a construction site in Longyan, Fujian. The large screen in the control cabin displays high-quality video images in real time; although the operator is inside the cabin, he can intuitively see all the details of the excavator's on-site operation.

△The intelligent excavator remote operation control cabin at work

This is the world's first remote-control 5G + intelligent rotary drilling rig control cabin jointly developed by Sunward and China Unicom. It can precisely control the construction movements of the rotary drilling rig, reducing the time from command issuance to equipment response to less than 150 ms, providing precise and fast remote control services, creating an unmanned construction environment, and ensuring the construction safety of operators.

During his inspection at Sunward, General Secretary Xi Jinping watched the intelligent remote-control excavator production line. "Shortly after the General Secretary's inspection, this product achieved batch delivery. Now, as long as there is a 5G signal, intelligent equipment from Sunward can achieve remote construction across thousands of miles," Qian Kang told the reporter proudly.

In addition to being the first in the industry to release a 5G intelligent rotary drilling rig, Sunward, with the support of China Unicom, has successively achieved engineering applications of 5G technology in fields such as remote-control excavators, intelligent rock drilling rigs, and smart mines, effectively solving construction challenges under emergency rescue conditions and in high-risk, harsh environments. These intelligent pieces of equipment have successively been used in actual construction operations at more than 30 mine sites in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and other regions.

"In the past, in high-risk application scenarios such as mining excavation and underground engineering, construction was mainly carried out by on-site manual operation, which was not only highly dangerous but also carried great operational risk. Today, these devices normally operate in automatic mode, and when manual intervention is needed in situations such as danger or emergency rescue, they can switch to manual takeover mode. Our operators can perform remote construction while sitting in the office." With the working environment transformed from dangerous and harsh to cool and comfortable, operators feel a world of difference. This is of practical significance for addressing China's shortage of skilled workers and upgrading the industrial workforce.

Behind this, China Unicom uses cloud networking technology to aggregate data from Sunward's geographically dispersed parks, connect mechanical equipment in various locations, and centralize it on Sunward's engineering equipment 5G remote control takeover platform. Using high-definition imaging, high-precision pose sensors, and precise control units on the equipment, it achieves highly immersive remote control of high-end equipment across regions.

On this basis, Sunward has also cooperated with China Unicom on a 5G+AR/VR system, applied to personnel training, assisted assembly during the assembly process, and product display. Through "digital twin" simulation technology, it reproduces the operating process of the rotary drilling rig, digitally passing on operating experience and enabling product marketing display, effectively solving the problems faced by high-end equipment such as high training costs, low training efficiency, difficulty in passing on assembly experience, and difficulty in refining assembly processes. The reporter sat in the 5G simulation training control cabin in the Sunward plant to experience driving skills training. The four 270-degree ultra-high-definition surround screens in front were virtually indistinguishable from real scenes, and the turning, vibration, and speed felt by the body were as if experiencing it in person. Hou Zhouping, an engineer at Sunward, introduced: "This real-time updated simulation training not only increased our assembly efficiency by 30%, but also reduced costs by 30%."

△The reporter experiences driving skills training in the 5G simulation training control cabin

Based on its own pioneering experience, Sunward, as the general contractor, joined hands with partners such as China Unicom to develop the "Intelligent Open-Pit Mine Mining Equipment and Integrated Comprehensive Management and Control System," which has been successfully applied at the Tengyuan Coal Mine. It has achieved real-time visualization of production data, refined safety control, intelligent production scheduling, unmanned transportation metering, and scientific production decision-making, reducing personnel by more than 50, increasing production efficiency by 15%, lowering comprehensive costs by 26%, and reducing annual emissions by up to 5,000 tons, providing ideas for China's open-pit coal mines to realize a new model of green, intelligent, and unmanned mining.

△The working site of Tengyuan Coal Mine

In this way, the butterfly effect triggered by intelligent equipment and applications empowered by 5G is gradually setting off an intelligent storm across the upstream and downstream of the entire industry.