Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, is making strides in industrial automation by leveraging NVIDIA’s advanced AI and Omniverse platforms. According to the NVIDIA blog, NVIDIA is creating a digital twin of its new factory in Guadalajara, a key hub for Mexico’s electronics industry.
Real cost savings with virtual factories
A digital twin, a virtual replica of a physical factory, allows Foxconn’s engineers to define processes and train robots in a controlled environment. These preparations aim to maximize efficiency when physical plants begin producing NVIDIA Blackwell HGX systems. With more than 170 factories worldwide, Foxconn is a leader in leveraging digital twins to improve industrial automation and efficiency.
Foxconn Chairman Young Liu highlighted the benefits, saying, “Our digital twin will take us to a new level of automation and industrial efficiency, saving time, money and energy.” By using the simulated plant to increase manufacturing efficiency, the company expects a 30 percent annual reduction in kilowatt-hour usage and significant cost savings.
Cooperation with Foxconn, NVIDIA, Siemens
Foxconn cooperates with Siemens software From the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, including Teamcenter and NVIDIA Omniverse. The partnership aims to develop 3D workflows and applications based on OpenUSD to ensure digital twins are physically accurate and visually realistic.
Last March, NVIDIA and Siemens announced their intention to integrate Siemens Xcelerator applications with NVIDIA Omniverse Cloud API microservices. Foxconn will be the first to leverage these combined services, enabling engineers to efficiently design robotic work cells and assembly lines. The robots are then trained using NVIDIA Isaac Sim within the virtual factory.
Robot goes to virtual school
Foxconn is taking a pioneering step by training AI robots within a digital twin. Robotic arms from manufacturers like Epson learn how to see, grasp, and move objects using the NVIDIA Isaac Manipulator, which includes NVIDIA acceleration libraries and a collection of AI-based models.
For example, robotic arms are trained to handle Blackwell servers and deploy them on autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Developed by Taiwan’s FARobot, this AMR uses NVIDIA Perceptor to generate real-time 3D maps to navigate the factory floor and avoid obstacles. Paths are optimized by NVIDIA cuOpt, a microservice known for its path optimization capabilities.
Global trends in industrial digitalization
Foxconn’s plans in Guadalajara are just the beginning. The company plans to design digital twins for other factories around the world, including one in Taiwan for manufacturing electric buses. Foxconn is also deploying NVIDIA Metropolis to augment its shop floor cameras with AI-based vision, providing deeper insight into operations and the opportunity to improve efficiency and worker safety.
The $46 trillion manufacturing sector is ripe for industrial digitalization. As revealed at COMPUTEX, other top electronics manufacturers such as Delta Electronics, MediaTek, MSI, and Pegatron are also leveraging NVIDIA AI and Omniverse to build digital twins. These companies aim to make factories more agile, autonomous and sustainable to meet the growing demand for more than 1 billion smartphones, PCs and servers each year.
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