Beyond 5G-Assisted Automatic Guided Vehicles in Seaport Environments

Location awareness is vital for several fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless applications. In particular, the use of 5G localization to assist or control automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) in seaport environments is a relevant use case conceived by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardization body. However, AGVs control systems require accurate localization, which is challenging in dynamic and cluttered environments like seaports. This paper proposes the use of soft information (SI)-based localization for providing location awareness to assist the motion of AGVs. The localization and navigation performance is determined considering the digital twin of a real seaport environment. Results show that SI-based localization can provide reliable AGVs navigation in 5G and beyond seaport environments.