Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA have teamed as much as introduce digital twins throughout the previous’s manufacturing factories, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The brand new partnership will leverage NVIDIA’s Omniverse industrial metaverse platform to spice up its manufacturing effectivity. With the brand new digital twins, Mercedes-Benz goals to economize, time, and vitality within the manufacturing course of, Jörg Burzer, Board Member, Mercedes-Benz Group, stated in a latest information briefing.
Information of the partnership comes after NVIDIA launched modifications to its Omniverse platform. A key addition to the platform has been assist for the Common Scene Description (USD) format to spice up interoperability and standardisation for open metaverse applied sciences.
NVIDIA, OpenUSD, and the Automotive Metaverse
Product builders, engineers, and different professionals can incorporate the USD-based digital twins of their computer-aided design (CAD) workflows. This can permit them to collaborate in real-time throughout distant distances reasonably than by way of in-office environments, permitting instantaneous modifications to firm schematics.
Manufacturing vegetation set to obtain the Omniverse embrace Rastatt, Germany, Beijing, China, and Kecskemét, Hungary. Over 30 extra factories internationally might obtain upgrades within the close to future.
‘Digital First’ is our new method for manufacturing, utilizing modern strategies together with the digital twin, to plan, retool and ramp-up manufacturing of our new fashions primarily based on the Mercedes Modular Structure (MMA) at our factories in Rastatt, Kecskemét and Beijing.#MercedesBenz pic.twitter.com/nwtjDrVqXE
— Mercedes-Benz (@MercedesBenz) September 20, 2023
For the brand new “digital first” design technique, Mercedez-Benz will use its MO360 manufacturing system to trial the rising applied sciences.
Rev Lebaredian, Vice President of Omniverse and Simulation Expertise, NVIDIA, stated in a press release,
“Utilizing Nvidia Omniverse and AI, Mercedes-Benz is constructing a linked, digital-first method to optimize its manufacturing processes, finally decreasing development time and manufacturing prices”
For instance, the announcement states that the Rastatt plant in Germany can work in the direction of innovating paint store digital productions. Utilizing synthetic intelligence (AI), the corporate monitored processes throughout the manufacturing trial, revealing as much as 20 p.c in vitality financial savings.
An extra new function consists of the Mercedes-Benz working system (MB.OS), which the automotive pioneer will use as a typical OS throughout all automobiles. It should additionally present main software program capabilities for automobiles.
The partnership can even see fleets leveraging NVIDIA Drive Orin and Drive software program, which operates the agency’s linked and clever automobile methods. The 2 platforms additionally leverage NVIDIA Omniverse.
Burzer continued,
“Mercedes-Benz is initiating a brand new period of automotive manufacturing because of the mixing of synthetic intelligence, MB.OS and the digital twin primarily based on Nvidia Omniverse into the MO360 ecosystem. With our new ‘Digital First’ method, we unlock effectivity potential even earlier than the launch of our MMA fashions in our international manufacturing community and might speed up the ramp-up considerably”
Utilizing Disruptive Applied sciences to Put together for Disruptions
NVIDIA’s applied sciences may permit factories to arrange for vital points, avoiding main shutdowns whereas working. This has grow to be important following the COVID-19 pandemic, which created important provide chain points and operational disruptions attributable to a scarcity of components and elements.
Moreover, the Kecskemét, Hungary plant will roll out a full digital twin of its manufacturing facility. Suppliers and planners of the plant can work together in actual time to vary structure and automation processes with instantaneous validation.
This may save the manufacturing facility huge quantities of time, decreasing approval, planning, and implementation to weeks, saving the corporate thousands and thousands within the course of.
Burzer concluded,
“We’ve launched the digital twin in manufacturing. The digital twin permits us to retool and ramp up manufacturing of the brand new MO360 platform in our factories proper across the nook” in Germany, Hungary and China. The corporate designed a digital manufacturing facility in Russia, nevertheless it won’t proceed with that and as an alternative will use it because the blueprint for its international manufacturing community. As well as, the manufacturing of synthetic intelligence opens up new prospects and alternatives for vitality and price financial savings”
NVIDIA Omniverse Updates
In a press convention attended by XR Immediately in August, Lebaredian defined that industrial enterprises had been “racing to reinvent themselves,” including that demand for enterprise and industrial metaverse applied sciences had been “huge.”
He defined that vertical set to see the best adoption charges had been manufacturing, transport, and telecoms at $46 trillion, $10 trillion, and $2 trillion USD.
The OpenUSD platform would join the market’s largest “design, computer-aided design, and simulation software ecosystems” from main tech suppliers like Autodesk, Siemens, Adobe, PTC, and Epic Video games, he added.
Autonomous automobiles additionally profit from NVIDIA’s ISAAC SIM and DRIVE SIM software programme interfaces (APIs) throughout its expertise stack.
The information comes because the motoring business rises as a significant vertical for XR applied sciences, with corporations like Meta Platforms, holoride, BMW, NVIDIA, Basemark, CrossHelmet, Varjo, and plenty of others incorporating modern options for his or her respective use circumstances.