NVIDIA and Siemens are leveraging digital twin technology and accelerated computing to advance sustainable manufacturing practices, aiming to reduce emissions and enhance energy efficiency.
According to the International Energy Agency, reducing the carbon footprint of industrial production by just 1% could save 90 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually, equivalent to taking more than 20 million gasoline-powered cars off the road each year.
Digital twins, built on the NVIDIA Omniverse development platform and Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD), are transforming how manufacturers approach sustainability and scalability. These technologies enable the creation of industrial-scale digital twins that contextualise engineering data from various sources as it would appear in the real world.
Siemens is integrating NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud application programming interfaces into its Siemens Xcelerator platform, starting with Teamcenter X, its cloud-based product lifecycle management software. This integration allows for photorealistic visualisation of complex engineering data and workflows.
HD Hyundai, a leader in sustainable ship manufacturing, is using these new capabilities to visualise and interact with complex engineering data at new levels of scale and fidelity.
Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturer, has introduced a virtual plant built on Omniverse and NVIDIA Isaac. This digital twin replicates a new factory in Guadalajara, Mexico, allowing engineers to optimise processes and train robots for efficient production of NVIDIA Blackwell systems. Foxconn expects to increase manufacturing efficiency while reducing energy consumption by over 30% annually.
The use of accelerated computing platforms that integrate both GPUs and CPUs can significantly enhance computational efficiency. These systems can be up to 20x more energy efficient for AI inference and training compared to traditional CPU-only systems.
Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG, stated: "We will revolutionise how products and experiences are designed, manufactured and serviced. On the path to the industrial metaverse, this next generation of industrial software enables customers to experience products as they would in the real world: in context, in stunning realism and — in the future — interact with them through natural language input."