The European Commission has unveiled a €6m (£5.1m) investment to the SPRINTER project which is developing optical and wireless technology to revolutionise industrial networks’ communications systems.
Using light instead of electricity, this new industrial internet offers wired and wireless connections between machines, rooms and buildings.
The SPRINTER initiative is redesigning what it calls the ‘nervous system’ of modern industry, using high-speed optical transceivers that use laser light to fire data through fibre cables at up to 200 gigabits per second.
These transceivers are designed to be cheap, reliable and ultra-efficient, offering industries a considerable improvement in performance.
“Industry 5.0 demands faster, smarter, and more robust networks,” said Efstathios Andrianopoulos, a researcher on the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS) team that leads SPRINTER.
“Our goal is to make Europe the world leader in industrial photonics — providing the tools to support the next generation of automation, robotics and intelligent systems.”
Funded through the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, SPRINTER brings together leading research centres and industry experts, including specialists in photonics, telecommunications, and industrial automation.
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