Industrial Metaverse: How Siemens Is Redefining The Future of Industry

Dr. Krug, there is still no clear definition of the “industrial metaverse”, so let's start with a very basic question: what does Siemens mean by this?

Stefan Krug: The industrial metaverse is a virtual space that connects the real and virtual worlds; it is real-time capable, photorealistic, physics-based and “always on”. Compared to the “consumer metaverse”, the industrial metaverse is much more than just immersion in a virtual space. It is based on a large amount of data from the real and virtual world. This data comes together in the industrial metaverse and is made accessible to humans and algorithms.

In the Industrial Metaverse, the availability of real and virtual data and behavioural models makes three things possible:

1. A look into the past in order to analyze: What happened?
2. Looking into the future to predict: What will happen?
3. Looking at a different place and at processes that could not previously be captured visually.

We at Siemens have decided to invest more than 500 million euros to expand our factory in Erlangen here in Bavaria and turn it into a showcase factory for the Industrial Metaverse.

Why is Siemens driving the development of the Industrial Metaverse? Does it bring improvements compared to Industry 4.0?

Stefan Krug: The Industrial Metaverse opens up completely new possibilities for solving challenges in industry and leveraging optimization potential. At Siemens, for example, we want to use it to significantly increase efficiency, quality, delivery performance and sustainability both in our own factories and in our customers' production facilities. We are developing and testing exactly how this works in our factory in Erlangen. The Industrial Metaverse is not an alternative concept to Industry 4.0. Rather, as already described at the beginning, networking and access to data is one of the necessary foundations for enabling an Industrial Metaverse. In addition, other technologies such as the digital twin, artificial intelligence, IoT, simulation and user experience are essential building blocks for the industrial metaverse. We are talking here about the technology building blocks of the Industrial Metaverse. With the Industrial Metaverse, we bring these building blocks together - the convergence of technologies. The more and the more detailed the data from the real world, the more precise the simulations, the more accurate the digital twin and, above all, the better these technologies interact, the greater the benefits of the Industrial Metaverse. This makes it possible to make better and faster decisions that have an impact on the real world.

XR technologies enable people to enter the Metaverse

What role do XR technologies, i.e. virtual, augmented and mixed reality, play in the industrial metaverse – and what other technologies and building blocks are still needed?

Stefan Krug: XR technologies play an important role in the industrial metaverse. Alongside other possibilities, they are a component that enables people to access the virtual world. However, it always depends on the use case for which the industrial metaverse is being used. The more it is about spatial representation or visual appearance, the greater the importance of XR technologies.

Is the industrial metaverse just a concept so far – or is it already being actively implemented, including at Siemens, for example in its own factories and at its own sites?

Stefan Krug: We are still at an early stage in the development of the industrial metaverse and we are constantly developing the concept, applications and technological building blocks. Similar to the Internet, the possibilities with the Industrial Metaverse will continue to expand. Now that we already have many of the building blocks of the Industrial Metaverse in place, we at Siemens have already achieved considerable success in our own factories. For example, a few years ago we built a new factory in Nanjing, which was completely planned and simulated virtually before we built it. The project was a complete success and we were able to complete and commission the factory well below the planned budget and timeframe.

Another example is our power electronics plant in Erlangen (GWE). Here, we were able to significantly increase the efficiency and quality of production using the Industrial Metaverse modules, among other things. The first tangible results can already be seen today. Technologies such as the digital twin and synthetic data are being used here, for example, to train robots, pick disordered parts from a box or carry out automated quality checks.

Can a large company like Siemens “build” the Industrial Metaverse on its own? Or, to put it another way: how important is the ecosystem?

Stefan Krug: No one can realize it alone. It is therefore crucial to find partners with complementary skills, join forces and form ecosystems. Siemens Xcelerator is Siemens' answer to this question. It enables the interoperability of a wide range of technologies and solutions from Siemens and its partners.

One example of this is our collaboration with Sony and their new VR glasses, which are due to be launched in the coming months. Sony has developed new goggles specifically for 3D engineering tools, equipped with innovative input devices – a ring and a touchpad – that enable greater accuracy when interacting with 3D geometries. The Siemens NX Immersive Explorer, combined with the Sony glasses, enables collaborative design review and therefore faster decisions at the design stage. This has already helped Sony increase their operational efficiency by up to 30 percent.

How long will it take for the industrial metaverse to become a reality?

Stefan Krug: The Industrial Metaverse is an evolution and convergence of existing technologies whose possibilities are constantly evolving. The necessary technology modules are already available and a reality today. Over the next few years, we will reap the results of Industrial Metaverse developments. Despite the considerable success of the Industrial Metaverse and the technology building blocks, we are only at the beginning of this exciting journey. We are convinced that we are revolutionizing the production of the future based on the possibilities of the Industrial Metaverse. We are implementing these advances at the Erlangen appliance plant. They can be experienced live there in a running factory.