Huawei launches AI ‘operating system’ for cities

Huawei has unveiled a digital platform for smart cities at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) in Barcelona.

Based on new ICT including artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), big data and cloud, Huawei and its global partners have been demonstrating solutions on the platform.

These covered municipal management, public safety and environmental protection, as well as smart transportation, smart government, smart education, and smart agriculture.

According to Huawei, the platform represents a shift from traditional information systems and lays a solid foundation for smart city development.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the core of the platform which integrates IoT, big data, geographic information system (GIS), video cloud and converged communications resources.

The company has also developed a middleware platform to provide services to software application partners. This is aimed at helping application partners quickly develop upper-layer applications to accelerate transformation and innovation in city management, city services, and industry development.

Huawei claims to be the industry’s first vendor to provide a full-stack digital platform covering cloud-pipe-device technology, and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capabilities.

Smart city adoption has undergone the first stage of breaking down data silos, the second stage of the rise of mobile internet applications, and the third stage of IoT deployment for collection of mass volumes of city data. It is now at the fourth stage, reports Huawei, where cities are improving their management capabilities through AI-enabled data mining, achieving the integration of digital technologies and city governance to promote sustainable city development.

“Just like an operating system, the platform is compatible with different city sensors, creates a city digital twin, and supports diverse city applications,” said Ma Yue, vice president of Huawei Enterprise Business Group.

“In the future, Huawei’s +AI Digital Platform will form the smart foundation of more and more cities, promoting sustainable city development worldwide. We look forward to setting smart city benchmarks with customers and partners.”

To date, Huawei claims its smart city solution has served some 160 cities in more than 40 countries. For example, in Duisburg, Germany and Sardinia, Italy, the solution facilitates the development of startup companies, improving the cities’ investment environment as well as the lives of citizens.

In Rustenburg, South Africa, and Serbia, digital technologies continue to improve city development capabilities. Meanwhile, in the North Atlantic volcanic archipelago and Tianjin’s Binhai New Area, AI enables cities to understand more about citizens to enhance city services.