Airhockey vs. Robots

The puck whizzes across the table at lightning speed; beating the 5G robot at air hockey is no mean feat! And is it any wonder: The 5G mobile service enables it to move virtually without any time lag, also known as latency. In other words, with almost the same reaction speed as a human. But only as long as the human does not change the machine’s mode, because the device can be set to 3G, 4G or 5G-standard latencies – enabling the robot’s reaction speed to be adjusted.

The former Bienert Villa here is home to the Barkhausen Institute’s Open Lab – an independent research establishment founded in 2018, which works closely with the TU Dresden to further develop the Internet of Things (IoT) and apply research findings to practical industrial problems.

Various test setups at the Open Lab, run by a team including Prof Gerhard Fettweis, show visitors how secure the Internet can be, and how reliable robots can be. In the Piet Mondrian Room, for example, anyone interested can play with paintings by the Dutch artist, whose works have been transformed into light installations. Visitors can vary them with human-machine interfaces, and are also made aware of key IoT issues: If firewalls and data security fail, the artist’s personal sketches and records appear.