Rockwell Automation Partners with NVIDIA to Bring Factory-Scale Digital Twins to Life with AI
- Cyber Jack
- Nov 12, 2024
- 2 min read
In a major move towards autonomous, AI-driven manufacturing, Rockwell Automation, a global leader in industrial automation, announced the integration of NVIDIA’s Omniverse APIs into its Emulate3D™ digital twin software. This collaboration promises to transform factory operations by leveraging physics-based simulation and digital twin technology to enable real-time testing and optimization of industrial systems on an unprecedented scale.
The partnership aims to advance digital twin technology from static visualization to dynamic, factory-scale simulation, helping manufacturers increase efficiency, accuracy, and safety in complex industrial processes. Digital twins, virtual replicas of physical systems, offer manufacturers a powerful tool to streamline equipment development, control testing, and operational analysis. Traditionally, digital twins have been limited by computational power and integration challenges across complex factory systems. The combined capabilities of Rockwell’s Emulate3D and NVIDIA’s Omniverse are set to address these limitations, providing a vendor-agnostic, scalable solution for factory-scale digital twins.
“Our integration of Emulate3D with NVIDIA Omniverse marks a significant leap forward in bringing autonomous operations to life,” said Blake Moret, Chairman and CEO of Rockwell Automation. “By combining our deep industrial expertise with NVIDIA’s cutting-edge technology, we’re helping our customers achieve new levels of efficiency, innovation, and collaboration in their manufacturing processes.”
Through the Omniverse platform, Emulate3D’s digital twin models will incorporate NVIDIA RTX rendering and OpenUSD interoperability, enabling engineers to simulate complete factory systems in real-time. This comprehensive approach will also allow engineers to integrate and visualize multiple digital twins within a unified web application, enabling teams to collaborate seamlessly across locations and departments. From a single interface, plant operators, system integrators, and other stakeholders can visualize and interact with an entire factory ecosystem, identifying bottlenecks, optimizing workflows, and testing control systems—all before making real-world changes.
“AI-enabled digital twins are driving the next wave of digital manufacturing and automation,” said Rev Lebaredian, NVIDIA’s Vice President of Omniverse and Simulation Technology. “Rockwell Automation’s Emulate3D software allows manufacturers to collaboratively visualize, simulate, and optimize their operations in real-time with NVIDIA Omniverse.”
The impact of this technology will be felt across multiple industries, including automotive, life sciences, food and beverage, and semiconductor manufacturing. Emulate3D allows companies to preemptively address potential control issues, reducing downtime and enabling plant personnel to train in virtual environments. Additionally, the software’s cloud-based deployment ensures flexibility and scalability, accommodating evolving manufacturing needs and expanding digital infrastructure.
This partnership underscores the power of digital twins in advancing industrial processes from manual operations to fully automated systems. By leveraging hyperscale capabilities and robust cloud deployment, Emulate3D and NVIDIA Omniverse offer a solution that grows alongside complex manufacturing projects.
With this collaboration, Rockwell and NVIDIA are setting the stage for a new era of smart manufacturing, bringing the benefits of autonomy, scalability, and collaboration to factories around the world.
