Introduction

In recent years, with the increasing information technology application, the industry 4.0 era， which uses information technology to promote industrial transformation has come. More airports, port and large-scale logistics parks have begun to upgrade intelligent and driverless industrial vehicles. It is the mission of Singpilot.AI to manufacture such products which are the safest, most stable，and applicable with the best performance and most reasonable cost in the limited scenes, to energize traditional auto factories and industrial parks with AI, thus delivering the core capabilities to where they are needed in the shortest time simply.

Founded in October 2018 in China Pilot Free Trade Zone, Jinqiao, Shanghai, Singpilot.AI is an AI platform company created by Automatic Driving Company and Core AI Technology Management Team under Singapore’s Singpilot. AIK. LTD. It focuses on the research and development of AI core technology. It energizes the overall solution in the field of driverless vehicles and logistics handling robots, aiming at the establishing of a warehouse-to-warehouse automatic driving full-scene AI platform. Its near-term target is to inject AI into the upgrading of the logistics industry from artificial intelligence and automation to driverless vehicles, providing safe, efficient， and economic new industry 4.0 “intelligent fleet” productivity tools for industrial vehicle manufacturers and industrial parks to improve production efficiency, cut production cost and guarantee operation safety.Singpilot.AI, less than two years old since its founding, has cooperated with head industrial vehicle manufacturers and leading industry customers, including Heliforklift, Weihai Guangtai, Skywell, JAC (Jianghuai Automobile Corporation), Tri-Ring Intelligent, Wuhan Huashan Port and Singapore Changi Airport.

Dr. Song Zhiwei, the founder and CEO of Singpilot.AI, is a globally well-known expert in robotics and autonomous driving, currently a member of the Singapore National Standards Committee for Autonomous Driving. As a PhD.in Computer Science of USTC, he has more than 20 years of experience in robotic and autonomous driving development. Dr. Song has once won the champion in the 1^st RoboCup China and served as Perception Lab Head at National-level Autonomous Driving Team established by ASTAR(Agency for Science, Technology, and Research), and has been responsible for software and hardware integration of Singapore’s first open road autonomous vehicle.

Song Zhiwei firmly believes that automatic driving in industrial scenes, including in airports, ports, large-scale hub logistics parks, and production logistics parks, are the fastest fields to achieve business value.

01 The automatic driving in airport scene is a gradual process to achieve

Singpilot.AI cooperates with Weihai Guangtai Airport Equipment Co., Ltd which is the listed largest airport equipment company in China provides intelligent equipment and overall autonomous driving solution for a domestic airport, involving vehicle drive-by-wire, high precision positioning, environmental perception, navigation decision, intelligent fleet dispatching system. Dr Song Zhiwei believes that its high precision positioning controller can achieve high precision positioning in empty scenes such as airports and ports, also solve inaccurate positioning and drifting caused by the shelter of the gallery bridge. It has completed its test at a large civil airport in China and will be operational this year.

Speaking of market scale concerning upgrading of the intelligent and driverless airport, Dr. Song Zhiwei thinks that initial market exploration about the introduction of automatic driving onto parking apron has existed in the aviation field. In 2017, British Airways began to use driverless electric tractors to push planes at London’s Heathrow Airport. However, it is only to solve single-vehicle intelligence, what Singpilot.AI needs to do is to realize intelligence.

That characterizes a production operation commonly requires the coordination of dozens or even hundreds of fleets under a comparatively complicated environment. Single-vehicle intelligence is far from adequate; another AI brain is necessary to set up in the existing business system brain to quickly find the optimal solution that can accomplish all tasks in the entire system, such AI brain is equal to a nerve center in the automatic driving scene.

Singpilot.AI has a clear goal to achieve the commercial value of automatic driving in industrial scenes, for this goal, we will upgrade vehicles to be intelligent, automated and driverless in airports, ports, and large-scale hub logistics parks together with partners, striving to be an AI enabler in the evolutionary process.

02  5G New Infrastructure Drives scene intelligence  

Driverless port is on the cusp this year

In the port scene, Singpilot.AI works together with Hubei Tri-Ring Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd to test and apply its SINGPOSE™ high precision positioning controller and solution in Hushan Port, Wuhan, Hubei Province. Its SINGIPOSE™ natural navigation positioning controller has solved a core pain point in the driverless wharf, namely, trackless navigation and positioning. The global initial positioning scheme created by Singpilot.AI can perform adaption in batches and step by step over the operation to achieve seamless docking without large-scale operations such as embedding magnetic nails or deploying ultra-broadband base stations, thus saving cost arising from large-scale environmental renovation during the construction of a driverless wharf and continuous maintenance during the use of such dock. This scheme is a crucial factor for the 5G driverless wharf to more accessible land in low cost and large scale. At present, at Huashan Port, Wuhan, several driverless container transfer vehicles, after receiving instructions, can jointly carry out three operation scenes of containers in port, namely, container loading, unloading, and yarding for transfer, without any human intervention. In terms of input cost, Tri-Ring Intelligent thinks the investment cost of each intelligent vehicle is about US$500,000 (RMB 3 million yuan) excluding the construction cost of 5G base station, thus saving labor cost US$10,000 (RMB60,000 yuan）per month(based on shift drivers). There are US$120,000 (RMB 720,000 yuan) a year, so it is expected to recover costs after three years’ operation.

On 12^th March, to accelerate new infrastructure, both the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly organized and carried out the 2020 New Infrastructure Construction Project. There are seven 5G innovation and upgrading items in the 5G field.

①5G intelligentmedical system construction facing major public health emergencies

②5G virtual enterprise private network for Internet plus collaborative manufacturing

③ Large-scale application of new 5G technology for smart grid

④Large-scale verification and application of vehicle-road collaborative vehicle network based on 5G

⑤Application demonstration of 5G plus intelligent education

⑥Construction of 5G intelligent port application system

⑦Infrastructure construction of 5G plus 4K/8K ultra HD production and broadcasting system

These seven 5G innovation and upgrading items have promising potential in the current 5G field

Construction of 5G intelligent port application system

5G technology is used to upgrade information-based systems in ports to achieve smart system transformation, involving horizontal transportation, vertical transportation, and in and out port of ships. Focusing on return of multi-channel video and remote control of vertical transportation port machinery, achieving automatic cargo handling at port, container truck automated driving in the closed area of the port to improve accuracy and efficiency of port cargo handling and, realizing cost reduction and efficiency increase.

Index requirements:

(1)5G networks will be deployed in at least 5 ports in China, the number of base stations is not less than 30, the port application is not less than 3.

(2)To build intelligent loading and unloading system of the port area based on 5G to achieve remote control transformation of at least 30 gantry cranes and quay cranes.

(3)To research and develop an intelligent cargo handling system of quay cranesbased on 5G plus AI, and the number of quay cranes is not less than 20.

(4)To carry out the research and development of driverless vehicle system in port based on 5G to achieve automatic path planning and unmanned driving for at least 15 vehicles in the horizontal operation areas of 5 ports.

(5)Support the revision of relevant industrial standards

03 Output value worth of  RMB 1 trillion: the upgrading industrial market concerning complex scene of large hub logistics parks

In the logistics park, Singpilot.AI cooperates with Anhui Heli Forklift Co., Ltd as the domestic head enterprise in intelligent transport projects. In addition, it also works together with many major enterprises such as Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd, Skywell New Energy Automobile Group Co., Ltd, Chongqing Naide Shanhua Special Vehicle Co., Ltd in commercial cooperation and industry-university-research cooperation. Besides, its cooperative projects concerning autonomous driving vehicle with institutions and organization have been put into operation, involving the International Professional Engineers Board of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Polytechnic University, AIIA (Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance), China Unicom, Chongqing Telecom and China-Singapore Industry incubator.

In addition to providing SINGDRIVE^TM autonomous driving vehicle solution for major vehicle plants to make vehicles complete the whole process of cargo transport and loading and unloading, Singpilot. AI also can offer SINGFLEET™ collective an intelligence AI dispatching system for customers to achieve intelligent coordination scheduling scheme in which manned and driverless vehicles can run in a hybrid manner. Furthermore, Singpilot.AI also provides intelligent upgrading services of vehicles for industry customers as follows: SINIGPOSE™ positioning controller can achieve vehicle tracking, SINGSENS™ sensing controller can reach assisted driving and dynamic scene monitoring of industrial vehicle, SINGNAVI™ navigation controller can achieve active vehicle safety and intelligent navigation in an industrial environment, SINGWIRE® drive-by-wire scheme can adapt existing industrial vehicle of customers by wire to achieve remote vehicle control.

According to Singpilot.AI, SINGPOSE™（star light navigation)positioning controller is a miniaturized active positioning controller based on multi-sensor fusion, applying to automatic driving, assisted driving, fleet management, mobile robots, industrial automation and other scenes. In case of failure to work or there is more significant error for GNSS, such controller can works together with laser radar and vision and other sensors to scan surroundings, thus achieving high precision positioning (a precision of about 10cm).

While SINGSENS™ perception obstacle avoidance controller is miniaturized collision prevention and warning system applied to automatic driving, auxiliary driving, and industrial safety, such design, through multi-sensor technology(one or combinations, among vision, millimeter-wave radar, laser radar, ultrasonic radar), can provide collision avoidance solution for automatic driving and auxiliary driving system through detecting and predicting potential contact and interlacing of obstacles on vehicle’s moving path.

In the new journey of achieving large-scale automation and intelligence in the future, the dominant demand is to improve efficiency continuously and fulfill orders at a low cost. As a solution provider specializing in industrial upgrading under complex scenes in large hub logistics parks, it will have a promising future in intelligent upgrading of the supply chain in the era of intelligent logistics with its competitive intelligent transformation and upgrading solution.

[Singpilot.AI.AI]   Energize AI for industrial vehicles with  cutting-edge technology at core link of key areas  

Singpilot.AI focuses on the research and development of AI core technology and enables the overall solution in the field of driverless vehicle and logistics handling robots, thus satisfying the demand for intelligent, automated and driverless industrial vehicle indoor and outdoor scenes for airports, ports and large scale logistics parks. Regarding large scale driverless fleets and groups, robots, Singpilot. AI, a cooperative multi-vehicle(multi-agent) dispatching and optimal path planning system. Its core development team has 20 years of robot development experience, nearly 6 years of L4 driverless development experience. It has finished several major unmanned driving research projects on open roads in Singapore Research Institute. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong once rode the driverless bus experimentally and praised it. The central core technologies of Singpilot.AI include comprehensive L4 driverless technology, robot operation and control technology, multi-agent cooperative dispatching technology. The driverless team of Singpilot.AI can provide 5 categories of products and services for vehicles and robots in industrial scenes as follows:

Ⅰ High precision self-navigation positioning controller is deployed to industrial vehicles on airports, ports, industrial parks and scenic areas to provide efficient operation scheduling and position service management without a need to install environmental equipment and a change to site environment.

Ⅱ Obstacle avoidance perception system is quickly deployed to industrial vehicles on airports, ports, industrial parks and scenic areas to complete real-time perception of environment and road, to strengthen safety and efficiency of operation.

Ⅲ Existing industrial vehicles on airports, ports, industrial parks are refitted by drive-by-wire to achieve remote vehicle control.

Ⅳ  According to procedures and rules established in advance, the automation solution of driverless industrial vehicles is to achieve vehicle’s going ahead, turning, slowing down, moving back, stopping indoors and outdoors to complete transport and loading and unloading of cargo, remote vehicle control can be realized.

Ⅴ  The latest 5G plus optical perception technology and 5G’s high broadband and low latency is utilized to meet the demand of multiple driverless vehicles for environment perception and job scheduling.

 

About Singpilot.AI.AI

Singpilot.AI focuses on R& D of AI intelligence core technology and highlights limited scene application, striving for overall solution in the field of unmanned driving and Creating a driverless commercial fleet that is safe, reliable and efficient. Its team members, with 20 years experience in robot development, port and waterway projects, enterprise management and financial management in Global Top 500, come from famous scientific research institutes at home and abroad, such as USTC, SJTU, UESTC, Yale University and Singapore Institute of Technology. The Founder Dr.Song Zhiwei once played a leading role in developing Singapore’s first driverless bus on public roads, which was taken and praised by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore. Such bus won Singapore’s national awards—A*STAR/Ministry of Industry and Trade Borderless Award

Singpilot.AI has a fully self-developed Autokernel(AK)autonomous driving underlying operating system and has plenty of practical experience at home and abroad in unmanned driving core technology research and development, product upgrading and enabling industry. It can provide a full-stack general technical solution of “Automatic Driving Whole Vehicle plus Mixed Running Scheduling Platform” for limited scenes such as ports, airports, factories and industrial parks, involving commercial solutions of multi-type vehicle, driverless minibuses, driverless cargo tractor, driverless horizontal container carrier vehicle and the world’s first driverless aircraft guided vehicle. With a total of more than 100 intellectual properties and ISO series authentication, Singpilot.AI has a full coverage of transport capacity within the scene for personnel and cargo.