Photo: CES
CES, which began today in Las Vegas, is primarily a trade show for consumer electronics. However, with 3,200 exhibitors, it's one of the most influential of all. At the opening, Siemens CEO Roland Busch promised to better align future digital worlds with real-world production conditions.
Bringing processes, targets, and timelines conceived on the drawing board into action is essentially a classic interface function for logistical and intralogistical material flow requirements and tasks that rely on "enablers." Digital twins, aided by artificial intelligence, have been advancing rapidly for some time now, checking the suitability of planning processes and production steps before they potentially prove unsuitable in real-world operation. Simulations have become indispensable in demanding projects, such as those testing the long-term behavior of ICE train axles and wheels, which, despite a lack of—or excessive risk—real-world testing, must keep pace with rapid technological advances. But what can these technological avatars truly achieve?
Almost messianic: CEO R. Busch. Photo: Siemens
Siemens, with its decades of production and process experience in the mobility, infrastructure, and automation sectors, sees itself as ideally positioned to distinguish between feasibility and mere fantasy at the interface between the digital future and virtual uncertainties. According to the power plant, locomotive, and mobility system manufacturers from Erlangen and Munich, mere internet giants from Silicon Valley are incapable of doing so due to a lack of in-depth experience. Or at least they are at a disadvantage compared to the traditional company. While it won't be 100 percent real in the future either, it will certainly be closer to the real physical world and more immersive.
Photo: Siemens
Almost everyone learns CAD and 3D design in basic engineering production design courses these days. However, the next step in the evolution of technical design and future models is expected to be "immersive design," which—so far primarily relevant to the computer games industry—means that the user's awareness of being exposed to illusion-driven stimuli recedes so far into the background that the virtual environment is perceived as real.
At CES in Las Vegas, Siemens and Sony are jointly presenting new solutions for such “immersive engineering”: a head-mounted display that combines the monitor glasses, which have been known for some time and are already popular with engineers, with a faster-clocked “Xcelerator” software.
At the opening of CES 2024, the world's leading technology trade show, Siemens unveiled innovations designed to connect the real and digital worlds and redefine their interface within an industrial metaverse. The "Xcelerator" is intended to accelerate this process as an open business platform.
Roland Busch: "This enables our customers to accelerate innovation, become more sustainable, and deploy new technologies faster and in a scalable manner. This will profoundly change entire industries and our everyday lives."
Siemens and Sony plan to combine the Xcelerator portfolio of industrial software with Sony's new system for creating spatial content. The XR head-mounted display features high-quality 4K OLED microdisplays and controllers for intuitive interaction with 3D objects. This new solution allows designers and engineers to create and explore design concepts in a virtually limitless, immersive workspace. Siemens' NX Immersive Designer, an integrated solution that combines Siemens' NX software with Sony's, is expected to be available later in 2024.
“In the area of spatial content creation, we have enabled innovative ways of working through the use of our proprietary motion and display technologies,” says Sony’s Chief Engineer Yoshinori Matsumoto. “By combining our technologies with Siemens’ engineering expertise, we are excited to enable immersive engineering that redefines the daily workflow of designers and engineers.”
Terminator A. Schwarzenegger: Always good for a statement. Photo: CES
Furthermore, Siemens and Amazon are collaborating to make it easier for companies of all sizes and industries to create and scale their software applications using generative artificial intelligence (AI). Siemens is integrating Amazon Bedrock into Mendix – a low-code platform – to incorporate powerful AI base models into existing systems via a single interface, along with the necessary security and privacy applications and integrated responsible AI. Features such as real-time alerts, 24/7 monitoring, energy target settings, and the charging of electric vehicles and solar panels will become increasingly commonplace. Highly precise monitoring and management solutions will help reduce energy consumption and electricity bills while simultaneously increasing availability, security, and capacity requirements.
Visitor rush for the opening
A “Siemens Experience” showcases, among other things, a life-changing contribution to the development of affordable, adaptable and scalable prostheses and works together with customers on the development of clean and safe means of transport.
Another system, dubbed "Blendhub," uses Siemens technology to combat food insecurity and transform food production. By building and connecting a multi-local network of factories for food and personalized nutrition, located closer to ingredient suppliers and end consumers, it aims to fundamentally restructure shared value creation within the global food system.
Real-world exhibition stand construction. Image: CES
With the launch of the Siemens Xcelerator Developer Portal, Siemens is taking a major step forward. The portal provides a platform that consolidates all of Siemens' APIs and developer resources. It is explicitly based, they say, "on principles of openness and collaboration." This sounds almost as good as the core principles of the "Open Logistics Foundation," launched in 2021 by Dachser, DB Schenker, duisport, and Rhenus together with the Fraunhofer IML.
CES livestream
F. Martens/K. Koch
