Nokia Launches Cognitive Operations to Bring AI to Critical Field Work

For teams working far from a data center, Nokia is packaging AI, local computing and communications into one field system. The company has launched Cognitive Operations, a commercially available platform for mining, public safety, emergency services and defense organizations.

Nokia is initially targeting mining, public safety, emergency services and defense. The company says the platform is intended to give operational teams real-time site and asset intelligence, reduce downtime and maintain visibility in demanding environments. Those benefits are Nokia’s stated goals, not independently reported performance results.

At the center is Nokia’s Cognitive Edge Node, a rugged networking and edge-computing platform with embedded GPU-accelerated computing. It is designed for vehicles and remote locations, placing computing capacity alongside the network connections used in the field.

Three applications for different field settings

• For mining, the platform pairs its AI capabilities with communications delivered through the Cognitive Edge Node. It can run on premises or through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
• For emergency services, Nokia describes a Vehicle as a Node concept in which equipped response vehicles form a distributed field-intelligence and communications network at an incident scene.
• For defense, the application extends the system to the battlefield edge, using on-device AI for sensor fusion, video analytics and threat detection.

Nokia lists AI assistance, live 3D digital twins, real-time video analytics, predictive maintenance, autonomous safety monitoring and hybrid wireless connectivity among the platform’s capabilities. The aim is to offer those tools through one operational system rather than separate field products.

Nokia says the platform’s hybrid wireless network design has no single point of access failure. It also collaborated with Rajant to integrate Rajant’s InstaMesh wireless-networking technology into the Cognitive Edge Node.