Feature: IIoT
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Is the industrial metaverse worth writing home about?
By Tom Cash, Director of industrial parts supplier, Foxmere
n July 2023, Siemens invested €500 million in a new technology campus in Erlangen, Germany to help develop its vision of the industrial metaverse. Te company intends to create a blueprint for the future - a real-time, photorealistic virtual representation of the world, where AI helps to create the next generation of high-tech, flexible
and sustainable manufacturing technologies. But is that really all that new? Here, Tom Cash, Director of industrial parts supplier Foxmere,
explains the computational, connectivity, interoperability and regulatory challenges of the metaverse while getting pretty darn excited about the whole thing. Haven’t we been talking about, and even using, digital
twins, extended and augmented reality, blockchain and virtual commissioning for more than a decade? Maybe so, but what sets Siemens' initiative apart are the ambitious goals it aims to achieve within the industrial digital realm. Te company wants to leverage AI to pioneer high-tech, flexible
and sustainable manufacturing technologies, which go beyond mere duplication of physical systems in the virtual world. Instead, it involves creating a dynamic, intelligent ecosystem that can revolutionise manufacturing processes. Whether this investment will come to pass remains uncertain,
as is the case with many plans. However, one thing for sure is that the companies actively engaged in developing metaverse hardware, soſtware and infrastructure are well aware of the difficulties when transforming traditional industries.
The concept Te metaverse concept has been used in recent years primarily to describe the development of a 3D internet, referring to virtual environments used mostly, so far, for entertainment. It now aims to create precise simulations of industrial
equipment, where it’s used as an umbrella term for various existing technologies that can be combined to digitally replicate real world objects and processes. For example, accurate simulations of factory equipment would
allow manufacturing and other industrial firms to optimise operations without disruption, while improving collaboration amongst workers and frontline employee training. As with the consumer vision of a 3D internet, the industrial
metaverse concept is a work in progress with extraordinary potential.
Interoperability According to a new report released by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, the NAM’s digital transformation division, and Deloitte, 92 per cent of manufacturing executives say they are experimenting with or implementing at least one metaverse-related use case. However, there are concerns about integrating existing
technologies and systems when developing the industrial metaverse. Here, data preparation and transformation within complex workflows often present as major hurdles. This comes as no surprise. Companies are already grappling with integrating systems across multiple plants, let alone the
26 March 2025
www.electronicsworld.co.uk
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