The University of Southampton is leading a consortium of industry pioneers to launch a 5G testbed for urban scale trials of next generation internet services across European cities.

The consortium, known as the FLAME project, will test 5G technology with consumers for the first time in a real-life environment, with 100s of people taking part in trials throughout 2018. 5G is expected to transform next generation networks by providing faster access to media and new services such as augmented reality.

FLAME will initially launch in the smart-cities of Bristol and Barcelona, with plans to expand to further locations across Europe over the course of the project’s three-year lifespan. The programme will allow players from creative industries, telecommunications industries and smart cities to run 5G trials on an urban scale that improve experience for consumers, reduce the complexity of media service development and reduce the cost of delivering personalised on-demand content.

The project’s coordinator Michael Boniface, Technical Director at the IT Innovation Centre (an applied research centre within Southampton's department of Electronics and Computer Science), said: “FLAME’s urban scale 5G testbeds provide unique opportunities to explore the acceptance, viability and performance of 5G networks. By focusing on media services the benefits of 5G can be experienced by consumers whether they are having fun, learning or just exploring the world.

“Success depends on establishing transformative media ecosystems that benefit everyone from consumers and content providers through to the operators of communications, transport and building infrastructures. The launch of FLAME’s testbed for urban scale trials is a major milestone in the evolution and adoption of 5G.â€?

At the heart of FLAME is a ground-breaking service delivery platform that uses software-defined infrastructures being rolled out across smart-cities. The platform’s advanced networking and service management capabilities allows media services to be dynamically placed and connected in locations where consumers’ need them.

Dirk Trossen, FLAME’s Technical Manager and Senior Principal Engineer at InterDigital Europe, said: “FLAME’s unique technologies set this test bed apart from previous efforts. It will provide first insights into the possible transformation of media services through deep integration with the programmable compute and networking infrastructure at city scale.â€?

“The strong combination of development, deployment and exploitation through standards as well as consumer-facing trials allows for building a strong European competence in main 5G technology areas from software-defined networking over network function virtualization to flexible service routing over such programmable Layer 2 transport networks.â€?

The initial trials, starting next month, focus on new media production and delivery workflows enhancing audience generated content for broadcasters, augmented reality gaming, personalised augmented reality city tours, and personalised access to mobile media.

FLAME’s Engagement Manager, Monique Calisti, Executive Director and Partner at Martel Innovate, said “With funding available for third parties to pursue experiments on the FLAME platform, our ambition is to create an exciting, creative and vibrant future media internet ecosystem. Through the FLAME’s open calls European innovators will be given the unique opportunity to conduct experiments in real-life experimental infrastructures and gain insight into the performance, acceptance and viability of their solutions.â€?

The University of Southampton is leading a consortium of 12 partners across six countries to launch FLAME as part of Horizon 2020, the largest ever European funding programme for research and innovation.

The partners include:

• InterDigital Europe
• Atos Spain
• i2CAT
• University of Bristol
• Nextworks
• Martel Innovate
• VRT
• The Walt Disney Company
• ETH Zurich
• Institut Municipal d’Informatica de Barcelona
• Bristol is Open

For further details, contact Michael Boniface H2020 FLAME Project

Researchers from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton will use bio-inspired algorithms and machine learning to develop fault-tolerant robotic swarms in a new scheme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Assistant Professor Dr Danesh Tarapore from ECS’s Agents, Interaction and Complexity research group will lead the New Investigator Award project that will create groups that can rapidly detect faults and adapt to environmental changes, paving the way for real-world applications such as the monitoring of pollutants in large bodies of water.

Through close collaboration with project partners, the research will lead to the next generation of robot swarms, capable of sustained operation for extended periods of time without human intervention.

“Robots are increasingly becoming an important part of our day-to-day lives, automating tasks like keeping our homes clean and packing parcels at large warehouses,â€? Danesh explains. “Our aging population and the need to substitute human workers in dangerous and repetitive tasks mean that new tasks are emerging on the horizon, such as automation in agriculture and environmental monitoring. This will require robots to do more and work in large-numbers as part of a swarm, acting over vast areas and efficiently performing their mission.

“However, robot swarms to date are not prepared for deployment; unable to deal with the inevitable damages and faults sustained during operation, they remain frail systems that cease functioning in difficult conditions. The goal of this project is to remedy this situation by developing algorithms for robot swarms to rapidly - in no more than a few minutes - recover from faults and damages sustained by robots of the swarm.â€?

Existing fault-tolerant systems for robot swarms can only diagnose issues anticipated in advance by the designer. Danesh proposes robotics move beyond these traditional approaches as it is not possible to predict all the scenarios a swarm may encounter while operating in complex environments for extended periods of time. His new project, titled ‘Rapid fault-recovery strategies for resilient robot swarms’, will lay the foundations for future robotics through the development of data-efficient machine-learning and nature-inspired computing algorithms.

The new approach will enable robots to adapt their behaviour to sustained faults within the swarm by learning through trial-and-error new compensatory movements that work despite the faults. The resulting system of working swarm behaviours would open up new applications for long-term deployment, with Danesh already planning a swarm of autonomous surface vehicles that can monitor large bodies of water for pollutants.

EPSRC’s New Investigator Award is a new scheme that supports researchers who have recently entered their first academic lectureship position. Danesh becomes the first researcher in Southampton’s Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering to receive the award, which will provide £250,000 over the next two and a half years, and will collaborate with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute as well as project partners ASV Global, MBDA UK Ltd and INRIA Lorraine.

Three postgraduate research students from the University of Southampton have been presented Excelling Student awards at The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

Computer scientists Dr Abdulrahman Ayad Alharthi, Madini O Alassafi and Dr Alaa Abdullah AlMarshedi received the honours from HRH Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud this winter, recognising the importance of their PhD research in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

The students were among just 30 people selected from across the UK for the prize, which is celebrated annually at The Royal Embassy in Charles Street, London. The awards recognise research and study distinction as well as scientific innovation and excellence, with recipients receiving a royal invitation to a lunch event which includes an honorary shield, certificate and financial reward.

Abdulrahman and Madini have centred their PhDs on cloud computing in migration and adoption projects, while Alaa Abdullah focused on gamification for the self-management of chronic-illnesses. The three students have been working with supervisor Dr Gary Wills from the Cyber Physical Systems research group and Abdulrahman and Alaa Abdullah have both recently completed their studies.

“It’s an honour to have been selected for such a prestigious prize,â€? Abdulrahman says. “I am proud to have demonstrated the high quality of ECS students at Southampton both to The Royal Embassy and other represented universities.â€?