AT&T and the Naval Postgraduate School will conduct research and build 5G and edge computing-based maritime platforms in support of defense, national security, shipping and other commercial industries under a three-year collaborative research and development agreement.
NPS and AT&T will conduct experiments using 5G and edge computing to develop maritime applications that can link crewed and unmanned vessels and sensors under the Sea Land Air Military Research program, the company said Thursday.
The company and NPS expect the SLAMR program to result in the development of a command and aquatic operations facility to facilitate unmanned aerial and underwater robotic vehicle activities. Research work will occur in Monterey, California.
They said the experiments could help pave the way for the creation of a connected system of autonomous and unmanned vehicles that could enhance command and control, multidomain situational awareness, data analytics, predictive maintenance and other defense capabilities.
The NPS-AT&T team expects the first 5G and multiaccess edge computing nodes to be operational by the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.