Milwaukee-based
Rockwell Automation, a manufacturer of industrial automation and digital transformation products, is partnering with Santa Clara, California-based software company
Nvidia to "evolve" the manufacturing industry more quickly.
Nvidia designs graphics processing units (GPU) and application programming interfaces (APIs) for data science and high-performance computing. The company is worth $2.2 trillion and held approximately 80% of the global market share in GPU semiconductor chips as of 2023. These chips are needed for AI and machine learning applications.
In a news release today, Rockwell said it aims to "evolve" the manufacturing industry by creating the “factory of the future,” a space that makes it easier for customers to digitalize industrial processes.
Factories of the future will be characterized by enhanced sensing capabilities with machine vision, accelerated compute capability in control systems, advanced simulations equipped with learning agents, widespread adoption of autonomous mobile robots, and generative AI experiences, Rockwell Automation says.
To speed up this process, Rockwell said it will further integrate Nvidia’s Omniverse Cloud APIs with its own Emulate3D software. This will allow for data interoperability, live collaboration and physically based visualization for designing, building, and operating industrial-scale digital twins of production systems.
A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical asset, system, or process that can be used to simulate, monitor, and optimize its performance.
“Our work with Nvidia is poised to help accelerate the future of industrial operations and create value across our portfolio of software, hardware, and services—from the cloud to the factory floor,” said
Jordan Reynolds, vice president, artificial Intelligence and autonomy, Rockwell Automation.
By developing on the Nvidia robotics platform, Rockwell is helping to bring autonomous mobile robots—through its
recent acquisition of OTTO Motors—and process automation applications to industrial customers.
As part of this collaboration, Nvidia is now part of the Rockwell Automation Partner Network. This means Rockwell customers can use Nvidia applications.
“The demand for the accelerated computing needed to create, simulate, and operate large-scale digital twins is rising,” said
Rev Lebaredian, vice president, omniverse and simulation technology, Nvidia. “Rockwell will integrate Nvidia Omniverse Cloud APIs with its Emulate3D digital twin application to help make factory analysis, including operations and simulation, easier and more predictive than ever.”
