How to understand the industrial metaverse? The Industrial Metaverse is the application of Metaverse-related technologies in the industrial field. It fully deploys the links and scenarios of R&D, design, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and after-sales service in the real industrial environment in the virtual space. The improvement and optimization of the industry will form a brand-new manufacturing and service system to achieve the effect of reducing costs, improving production efficiency, and efficient coordination, and promoting the high-quality development of the industry.
The Industrial Metaverse realizes "virtual and real collaboration" from "virtual to real". The industrial metaverse is similar to the concept of "digital twin". The difference between the two is that the digital twin is a 1:1 mapping of the real world to the virtual world. It simulates industrial production in the real world by controlling the production process and production equipment in the virtual world. The industrial metaverse is more imaginative than the digital twin. The virtual world reflected by the industrial metaverse not only has the mapping of the real world, but also has experiences and interactions that have not been realized or even impossible in the real world. In addition, the Industrial Metaverse pays more attention to the collaborative linkage between virtual space and real space, so as to realize virtual operation to guide real industry.
Industrial Metaverse helps intelligent manufacturing to upgrade in an all-round way. Intelligent manufacturing is based on the deep integration of new generation information technology and advanced manufacturing technology, and runs through all aspects of manufacturing activities such as design, production, management, and service. The industrial metaverse is more like the future form of intelligent manufacturing. It takes promoting the linkage between virtual space and real space as the main means, and emphasizes mapping and expanding the operations that can be realized by physical industry in virtual space. The operation guides the efficient operation of the physical industry, empowers all aspects and scenarios of the industry, enables industrial enterprises to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and improving production efficiency, promotes efficient collaboration within and between enterprises, assists the high-quality development of the industry, and realizes the further upgrade of intelligent manufacturing .
Looking forward to the future, application scenarios will cover the entire life cycle of products
At this stage, most cases of the industrial metaverse are closer to the application of "digital twin" technology. Looking forward to the future, the application scenarios of the Industrial Metaverse will cover the entire product life cycle from R&D to after-sales service, guiding and promoting industrial process optimization and efficiency improvement from "virtual" to "real". The following sections start from R&D design, production optimization, equipment operation and maintenance, product testing, and skill training, and look forward to the possible application scenarios of the Industrial Metaverse.
R & D design. Compared with the use of industrial software for product design at this stage, the R&D design under the application of related technologies of the Industrial Metaverse will improve product development efficiency and reduce product development costs to a greater extent. In terms of product design, the environmental factors during product application can be controlled through the Industrial Metaverse Platform, and based on the product model designed in the Industrial Metaverse Platform, an intuitive and accurate simulation of the function of each component of the product can be made, which can effectively verify Product performance. In terms of collaborative design, Industrial Metaverse can break geographical restrictions and support multi-party collaborative design. Users can also participate in product design and experience the products it designs on the Industrial Metaverse platform. In terms of user experience, product research and development on the Industrial Metaverse platform has been deeply involved in users, which is closer to user needs and can enhance user experience to a greater extent.
Production optimization. Through the industrial metaverse platform, one can immersely experience the construction and operation process of the virtual smart factory, interact with the equipment and production lines in the virtual smart factory in real time, optimize the production process more intuitively and conveniently, and carry out intelligent production scheduling. In the early stage of smart factory construction, the industrial metaverse platform can be used to build a virtual smart factory that is consistent with the building structure, production line layout, production process, and equipment structure of the real smart factory, so as to realize the capacity configuration, equipment structure, personnel movement, etc. Reasonable advance verification. Any changes in the production process of the smart factory can be simulated in the virtual smart factory to predict the production status and optimize the production process. For example, BMW and Nvidia are conducting virtual factory-related cooperation. BMW has introduced Nvidia’s Omniverse platform to coordinate the production of 31 factories, which is expected to increase BMW’s production planning efficiency by 30%.
Equipment operation and maintenance. Compared with the current predictive maintenance using big data analysis, the equipment operation and maintenance based on the industrial metaverse can break the space limitation and effectively improve the response efficiency and service quality of equipment operation and maintenance. In the virtual space established by the Industrial Metaverse Platform, operation and maintenance personnel will not be restricted by regions. When there is a problem with the production equipment, they can remotely confirm the equipment condition in real time and repair the problem in time. For difficult and complex equipment problems, experts from all over the world can be gathered through the Industrial Metaverse platform to discuss solutions together, thereby improving production efficiency.
product testing. For products with high application standards and complex testing requirements, Industrial Metaverse can provide a virtual environment for experimental verification and product performance testing. Through the combination of virtual and real, the simultaneous testing of physical space and virtual space can be realized, and the internal and external changes of the product can be more intuitively felt, and the efficiency and accuracy of test certification can be improved. For example, compared with civilian consumer-grade chip products, automotive-grade AI chips have complex functional designs due to the changeable working environment and high safety requirements. The R&D, testing, and certification processes are very strict, and they need to meet a number of international and domestic industry standards. . Industrial Metaverse can provide a virtual test space for automotive-grade AI chips. Engineers can test automotive-grade AI chips at a lower cost. They can also simulate and experience self-driving cars equipped with AI chips to improve automotive-grade AI chips. testing and certification efficiency.
Skills Training. Industrial Metaverse can effectively improve the efficiency of teaching and training, provide institutions of higher learning, enterprises and other organizations with virtual equipment for training students and employees' professional skills, allowing students to operate production equipment more intuitively. At the same time, for extreme special situations such as earthquakes and fires, a virtual space can be built through the industrial metaverse platform for relevant personnel to practice escape routes and test accident handling methods.
Build a solid foundation and welcome the arrival of the "Industrial Metaverse" era
The industrial metaverse enables the real world and the virtual world to communicate and develop, presenting the form of virtual and real integration and mutual influence. It requires powerful computing power, network and other basic technologies as the base, as well as powerful chips, sensors, optical lenses, VR/AR and other hardware equipment Support the imagination and development of the industrial metaverse. In order to promote the implementation of the industrial metaverse from concept to application, further research and construction in various aspects are required. For the industrial metaverse, we propose that the government and enterprises can deploy and develop technologies related to the industrial metaverse, not to over-touted the concept, and to avoid too many "bubbles" due to weak foundations.
On the one hand, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of new infrastructure such as digitization and computing power, and strengthen the research on basic technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. First, continue to promote the construction of digital infrastructure, promote the deployment and application of "dual gigabit" networks, support industrial enterprises to use new network technologies and advanced applicable technologies to transform and build enterprise networks, and provide high bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability for the industrial metaverse network access capability. The second is to accelerate the construction of data centers, carry out operations to improve computing power, promote the further opening of network transmission channels between national hub nodes, speed up the implementation of the "East Digital and Western Computing" project, and improve the level of cross-regional computing power scheduling. The third is to encourage universities, scientific research institutes, enterprises and other organizations to promote cloud computing, big data and other technological research, and accelerate the process of industrial metaverse transformation.
On the other hand, the research and development and application of VR/AR and other related hardware equipment should be strengthened, and the technological upgrading of key equipment such as optical lenses, display panels, main control chips, sensors, and memory should be promoted. The first is to promote the action of "unveiling the leaderboard" for key core technologies, setting up special research topics for the research and development of core technologies and tools and equipment such as chips, sensors, and memory, and "uncovering the leaderboard" for institutions of higher learning, scientific research institutes, and enterprises. of organizations carry out independent research and development or joint research around weak links. The second is to accelerate the development of modeling and simulation industrial software, support enterprises with foundation to continue to develop and improve R&D and design industrial software, encourage social capital and industrial funds to support the development of my country's R&D and design industrial software, and draw closer to my country's current R&D and design industries. The gap between industrial software and foreign countries will be accelerated to fill the shortcomings and lay the foundation for the Metaverse to empower the industry.
