South Korea has launched a smart building technology project to bring more innovation to construction sites with an overall investment of 200 billion won ($173 million) within the next six years, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.
The smart building technology development project for 2020-2025 focuses on four sectors: automation of construction equipment and management system; smart buildings for road structure; smart integrated safety control technology and digital platforms.
According to local news site Pulse, each area of focus consists of detailed items that can wholly change the overall building process, such as automation of civil engineering workequipment, real-time control of multiple pieces of equipment, building information modeling (BIM)-based modular construction and remote building using robots.
The South Korean government had allocated less than 30 billion won for similar projects, but it decided to increase its budget drastically this time with an aim to develop more practicable technologies applicable to construction sites.
The research and development project will be carried out in line with actual construction orders to prove out the application, the ministry added. Participants in the project are invited to submit ideas through February 25.
South Korea?s three mobile carriers are engaged in several projects for the provision of in-building wireless technology through 5G.
According to a previous report by?Korea Times, SK Telecom has completed the development of a ?5GX In-building Solution?, which is capable of doubling the speed of 5G data transfer inside buildings and effectively dispersing data traffic to prevent overload on base stations in crowded areas such as shopping malls and subway stations.
SK Telecom also said this new in-building wireless technology will be applied to its commercial 5G networks.
The company said its new system features ?active antenna? technology that allows 5G small cells to be equipped with eight transmission and reception antennas.?The carrier highlighted that this technology will double the speed of 5G data transfer as existing indoor base stations are capable of operating four transmission and reception antennas, according to the report.
KT has also been working to expand 5G coverage inside buildings.
In May 2019, the carrier had interlocked 5G repeaters with commercial 5G networks in cooperation with small and medium business partners.?KT is in charge of expanding 5G coverage in 95 large buildings out of 119 nationwide, such as airports and KTX stations, in a joint project carried out by the three mobile carriers.
Meanwhile, LG Uplus has been installing repeaters in small and medium buildings and underground parking lots to expand 5G coverage.
The telco is also planning to expand the application of beam-forming and multi-user MIMO technologies to its 5G networks across Korea.
