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Siemens AG Interview

With Tobias Fengel, Head of OEM & Industry Marketing in Factory Automation

Industrial Metaverse

The Metaverse has been the subject of controversial debate for years. Siemens has often referred to the Industrial Metaverse as a key technology they want to promote. What exactly is your vision of the Industrial Metaverse, and what specific benefits do you expect from it?

Users of the Industrial Metaverse experience digital twins in an immersive and interactive real-time simulation of a physical environment. It enables its users to visualize the Digital Twin within its context, and to gain insights from a photorealistic hands-on environment. Any information used to describe the physical world can be modelled, simulated, contextualized, and verified in the digital world to ensure that the virtual experience comprehensively reflects and simulates reality. This allows companies to predict production results, test solutions, identify potential issues, and take corrective actions in a digital environment without any risk at all. Customers using Siemens Xcelerator benefit from an open, collaborative ecosystem that drives innovation and facilitates scaling across domains, sectors, and markets while accelerating the digital transformation.

Industry experts consider the Metaverse a multi-billion Euro market, particularly in industrial environments. Do you agree with this assessment, and what major obstacles do you expect on the way there?

The Industrial Metaverse’s building blocks are already available via Siemens Xcelerator. We see an increasing number of use cases with specific benefits emerging from the accelerated convergence of digital technology. For example, Siemens has developed an Industrial Metaverse showcase in cooperation with FREYR, a Norwegian manufacturer of sustainable batteries, based on the company’s first gigafactory. It already demonstrates the Industrial Metaverse’s potential at scale. The Industrial Metaverse’s building blocks are also being implemented at the Siemens equipment manufacturing plant in Erlangen (GWE) one block at a time in a similar fashion. This effort includes digital twins, artificial intelligence, and automation combined with IT technology. It pursues the goal of creating sustainable value by interfacing the physical with the digital world. Even though challenges such as data aggregation, cyber security, collaboration within ecosystems, and different levels of digital maturity remain unsolved, early adopters are tackling these issues and pave the way towards more widespread utilization.

What are the Industrial Metaverse technologies Siemens offers today and what does your R&D department have in the pipeline?

The Industrial Metaverse is a joint effort taking place in an expansive ecosystem of technology partners, but we can rightfully say that the central building blocks are already in place – they are available in Siemens Xcelerator, our open digital business platform. This is an overview of said building blocks:

  • Digital Twin
    The Digital Twin is the Industrial Metaverse’s key component. It enables real-time views of product and factory life cycles by enhancing the digital world with real-time data from the physical world. The Digital Twin in the Industrial Metaverse creates an experience in which users can interact with an immersive environment and make sure everything works as it should.
  • AI/data
    AI deployment in the Industrial Metaverse can help identify issues, take action, and assess effects before updating the physical world. Real-time data from both the physical and digital world is used to gain insights into unknown potential issues. This process merges and contextualizes data from across multiple systems and formats in order to provide insights and to facilitate cooperation within larger groups of people.
  • Software-defined automation
    Software-defined automation optimizes operations through efficiency, scalability, and simplicity while offering users intuitive programming options. Virtual PLC systems are revolutionizing industrial control technology by ensuring scalability and efficiency. In combination with the Industrial Metaverse, they enable real-time digital twin experiences.

What kind of timeframe do you expect for wide-scale Industrial Metaverse adoption, and which industry sectors and countries are currently in the lead?

The Industrial Metaverse is an ever-evolving ecosystem and not an isolated event. It will be successively introduced in phases driven by advancing digital infrastructure maturity, investments, and specific use cases. We see many upcoming use cases – such as immersive product design, immersive collaborative planning for factory relocation, and integration – bridging the gaps between expert systems and data sources for collaborative operations optimization and troubleshooting efforts.

According to the 2024 Metaverse Survey conducted by 451 Research of S&P Global Market Intelligence:

  • 81 % of all companies are currently using, testing, or planning to introduce Industrial Metaverse technology within three years, and 62 % of them will step up their investments in 2024.
  • The US are leading the field with 38 % having implementations and another 35 % conducting tests. China follows right behind and Germany is also making some significant progress at par with ambitions in Canada, Australia, the UK, and India.