Industrial metaverse spend to reach US$6.3 billion by 2030: report

According to a new report from technology intelligence firm ABI Research, the industrial metaverse (IMV) is set to greatly enhance manufacturing engineering, training, safety and production. The report says that spending on industrial metaverse solutions and services will grow at 22.8% to reach US$6.3 billion by 2030 as immersive and collaborative capabilities come to the forefront of Industry 4.0 software development efforts.

IMV solutions use immersive technologies and digital twin initiatives, integrating data virtualisation, AI simulation, business operations systems and external data sources to enable connectivity between digital twins and other systems.

“Top IMV use cases for 2024 will be in training, collaboration and production planning, with a strong emphasis on solutions that drive positive business outcomes in a short timeframe,” said Ryan Martin, Senior Research Director, Industrial & Manufacturing at ABI Research. “Large deployments that are costly or take a long time to demonstrate value will be avoided in favour of smaller projects that drive incremental results that scale.”

Siemens Industrial Operations X, AWS IoT TwinMaker and NVIDIA Omniverse are all creating immersive metaverse experiences. Danone is using Matterport Pro3 cameras to capture 3D imagery of its facilities so authorised users can virtually visit and explore the production site using a computer or mobile device, while Burckhardt Compression uses PTC’s spatial computing services for remote assistance and automated report-generation scenarios involving a supertanker in the middle of the ocean. Other notable providers include AVEVA, Dassault Systèmes, Ericsson, Microsoft and Nokia.

“The dream to enable full factory metaverse experiences is far from realised, but the work has begun,” Martin said. “Initial implementations will start with a portion of a factory or production line, likely on an as-needed basis. The broader environment is well suited to partnerships that ease points of integration and enable marketplaces in the long run.”

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