Concept: American robotics company Sarcos Robotics and T-Mobile has collaborated to launch a 5G integrated teleoperation robot. The collaboration is set to improve performance and response time for remote operations by leveraging 5G technology.

Nature of Disruption: The Sarcos Guardian XT robot is remotely controlled on a telescopic boom. It requires a reliable 5G low-latency network to carry out operation seamlessly. The ground-up designed 5G architecture is already being used for various industrial applications. The Guardian XT robotic system is the upper body of the Guardian XO full-body robot which is a battery-powered industrial exoskeleton. It is a platform-agnostic that can be mounted on various mobile devices such as cherry pickers or basket trucks. They are designed for hard-to-access sites or elevated areas. The operator on the field controls the Guardian XT robots and can be watched or monitored by the managers on-site or remotely by integration of 5G network. It gives operator flexibility and greater safety and is widely used in aerospace, automotive, defense, construction, manufacturing, maritime, and oil & gas businesses.

Outlook: The integration of 5G enables the remote viewing management system for a various application that uses telescopic booms. Earlier, humans were working on the boom platform to carry out operational or maintenance work in applications such as power line maintenance, and mobile tower maintenance or installations. It created uncertainty for safety-related issues that needed a solution to be fixed without affecting productivity. The remote automation by using robotics on the telescopic boom platform not only reduces the safety-related risk but also achieves equal productivity as that of humans if not more.