Siemens to create a blueprint for the industrial metaverse

Siemens has announced it will invest €1 billion in Germany to create a blueprint for the industrial metaverse in Nuremberg.

The investment in Germany is part of the company’s previously announced €2 billion investment strategy. This begins with the establishment of its new Technology Campus in Erlangen, Germany, with investments of around €500 million in the expansion of development and manufacturing capacities. Siemens said it is establishing the Erlangen location as a global research and development hub and the nucleus of global technology activities for the industrial metaverse.

With around 3500 employees, the current location is already home to a factory for key products in industrial automation and digitalisation. Production in Erlangen is already highly automated, with humans and robots working side by side. Through this investment, Siemens is now creating a blueprint for the industrial metaverse, a virtual representation of the real world — photorealistic, physics based and in real time. The targeted use of relevant, physical data and the application of artificial intelligence are creating the latest generation of high-tech manufacturing, which produces more sustainability and can respond flexibly to market changes.

“Siemens is banking on innovation in Germany and launching the next stage of digitalisation: we’re laying the foundation for the industrial metaverse in the Nuremberg metropolitan region. Here, on the new campus, we’re combining the real and the digital worlds,” said Roland Busch, President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG. “Together with partners, we’re developing new digital technologies in the metaverse and revolutionising how we’ll run our production in the future — much more efficiently, flexibly and sustainably.”

MIT collaboration

In March, Siemens announced a collaboration with MIT Technology Review “to explore the development and opportunities of the rapidly developing industrial metaverse”. According to the announcement, the industrial metaverse will be “a digital world that mirrors and simulates real machines, factories, buildings and entire cities and transportation systems. The seamless integration of the real and digital worlds will empower people and companies to solve real-world problems.”

The industrial metaverse will result from the evolution and convergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud and edge computing. A key building block will be the digital twin, which simulates the behaviour of its real-world counterparts and is already revolutionising product development, infrastructure management, manufacturing and training measures. Future digital twins will provide photorealistic simulations of the real world and enable real-time interaction between people and machines.

New campus combines development and high-tech manufacturing

The new campus in Erlangen will focus on sustainable and future-oriented high-tech manufacturing, related research and development activities.

Before construction work begins, the new buildings for research and development, production and logistics will be planned and simulated in the digital world. They will then be implemented in the real world. In the process, an exact replica is created in the digital world, in which the entire existing factory layout is optimised and later readjusted in the real world by using the industrial metaverse.

Siemens said the investment is an important element of its strategy to combine the real and the digital worlds. The company is strengthening its Erlangen location as a hub for digital production concepts — for example, through the use of the industrial metaverse and for modern technologies like industrial 3D printing and power electronics. In addition, employees are upgrading their skills through forward-looking work and training concepts (NextWork), not only to prepare themselves for the digital transformation of the working world but also to actively shape it.

As part of its global investment strategy of around €2 billion, Siemens has also announced investments in regions such as the US, China and Southeast Asia.