Creating a connected stadium

MK5G Create used 5G to trial advanced mobility and hospitality logistics, driving research in the field of automation. The use cases included three forms of autonomous vehicles, drones and robots and delivered ground-breaking applications illustrating how major venues could fundamentally change the way they operate in the future.

The work was undertaken at Stadium:MK, a premier sports and events location which includes a 30,400-seat stadium, 5000-seat indoor arena, a 304-bed hotel and 1300 parking spaces. The site also hosts a multiplex cinema, gym complex, restaurants and major retail park.

The project involved 13 partners (public-, private-, corporate, SME) and a range of other contributors across a range of technical and business domains, who worked together to deliver a series of use cases to enhance the stadium, hotel and arena experience. This included a number of use cases which resulted in the deployment of robots, drones, autonomous and driverless vehicles, and other shared modes of transport, as well as AI-enhanced CCTV camera capability, and the underlying 5G connectivity. In addition, the project delivered a comprehensive ‘Data Exchange’ to manage 100’s of connected devices and other data feeds, as well as suite of software applications to enhance the visitor experience, through joined up journey planning and operational dashboards to support stadium and council operations.

Our role was to lead the end-to-end delivery of the project. This included bid development and management, project management of all aspects of the implementation and delivery of showcase events to promote the project outcomes. Together with our partners, we were able to deliver a compelling vision of the future that included use of drones to undertake structural surveys around the stadium, use of robots in a range of hospitality settings, e.g., re-stock, food and drink delivery, robotic bell-boy etc., linking CCTV and AI capabilities to show live space-by-space utilisation of car parking, connected sensors at stadium ingress and egress points to support monitoring of traffic flow, establishment of an autonomous 10-seater shuttle connecting local rail stations and the stadium and use of autonomous pods and driverless cars around the stadium complex.