While various technology experts are still trying to imagine what the Metaverse virtual world will bring to businesses and consumers, the industrial Metaverse virtual world is already changing the way people design, manufacture and interact with physical entities in various industries. While definitions of the Metaverse abound, and it remains to be seen how the Industrial Metaverse will develop, digital twins are increasingly seen as one of its key applications.
01 Metaverse and digital twin
Digital twins were first proposed in 2002. They can be seen in everything from creating ecosystems when planning new cities to formulating iterations of manufacturing processes. Digital twins are also becoming an important technology as the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) accelerates automation and digitalization across industries.
Simply put, a digital twin is a virtual replica of a product or process that is used to predict how the physical entity will perform throughout its lifecycle. For example, BMW created a virtual twin of its production plant in Bavaria before building the physical facility. Boeing is using digital twins to develop models to design its aircraft. "Virtual Singapore" is the world's first urban digital twin platform. The government created it to support its policy decisions and test new technologies. It not only integrates building semantic information, but also carries multi-domain static and dynamic data.
There are more and more hot spots and topics surrounding digital twins, which has inspired people’s unlimited imagination about the industrial metaverse. According to ABI Research, as more and more enterprises leverage Industry 4.0 tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, edge computing, and XR extended reality to accelerate enterprise digital transformation, by 2025, industrial digital twins and simulations will The market size of industrial XR extended reality will reach US$22.73 billion.
Experts say that the integration of mature technologies is driving the development of the industrial metaverse. Raghav Sahgal, president of Nokia's cloud and network services business, believes that the most important of these is 5G. Sahgal believes that “this is indeed a very big turning point for the industry. 5G has become the carrier of many new functions. It can achieve lower latency and more accurate data exchange, both of which drive the metaverse to become a reality.” The essential."
The industrial metaverse is not just a digital twin
Creating digital twins is just one of the many benefits of the Industrial Metaverse. By creating digital twins of entire systems such as factories, airports, cargo terminals or cities, rather than just digital twins of individual machines or equipment as we have seen so far, an industrial metaverse of extraordinary scale and complexity can be achieved.
For example, in 2020, Nokia Bell Labs partnered with indoor vertical farming company AeroFarms. By combining autonomous AI-based drone control solutions and advanced machine learning capabilities with machine vision tools, Nokia Bell Labs has created technology that can track the growth of millions of plant species.
Thierry Klein, president of Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, said, “We developed a fully autonomous drone solution, with multiple drones flying over this farm. This allowed the farm to monitor details such as the height and color of the plants, Discover areas of poor growth and predict yields. We actually built a complete digital twin system of the farm to give growers real-time visibility into the entire production of the entire farm. Through data analysis, the farm can optimize water, energy and nutrient consumption, speed up troubleshoot, improve the accuracy of yield forecasts, and ensure high-quality crops.”
In this farm digital twin system, some key technical elements such as sensors, artificial intelligence, etc. are developed to build a comprehensive metaverse virtual world.
Industrial Metaverse strengthens remote collaboration and optimizes work processes
Klein believes the Industrial Metaverse can also enhance remote collaboration and optimize workflows. Users can leverage its capabilities as a dynamic, multi-stakeholder ecosystem, using intelligent analytics to process data sets and gain deeper understanding of problems. Nokia's partnership with Taqtile is an example.
The two companies joined forces in 2021 to provide an augmented reality training and job coaching platform that leverages industrial edge cloud computing, IoT and 4G or 5G networks to enable users to communicate with experts in real time. "It all comes down to getting more information and better understanding of information that may not be visible to the naked eye, giving users a deeper understanding of what that information means," said Klein. "The platform enables users to extract the most useful information from complex data." information that enables them to make informed decisions, interact with and control their surroundings, and return to collaborative design.”
Without edge computing, there would be no metaverse
For some key areas of industry, the Metaverse requires low latency, large-scale machine communication and high reliability in addition to fast network speeds. Edge computing is another must-have as it requires near-zero latency and requires decentralized local edge data centers close to users for people to interact with each other and use devices to access the Metaverse.
It's impractical for people to carry bulky, complex headsets around the house, and edge computing will enable leaner, lighter headsets by offloading much of the computation from the device to edge infrastructure, while also delivering superior speed and low-latency capabilities. Without edge computing, there would be no Metaverse.
The industrial metaverse is the integration of multiple technologies
Entering the metaverse requires not only complex equipment but also collaboration, and no one can truly own or dominate the virtual universe. The Metaverse is a combination of applications, devices and other things, and in order to achieve this, open source code will be an important foundation. A piece of open source code from the development community that developers can embed into their applications to implement various features. In turn, some SaaS (software as a service) will help more companies enter the industrial metaverse.
Building the metaverse can also be likened to choosing the right modules and interfaces and connecting them in various ways. Imagine you bought a set of Lego bricks to build a model airplane. Initially, you were satisfied with building that airplane, but after a while you got bored and you wanted to build something else, like a boat, a car, or a house. That's when you reuse the same basic building blocks from the original LEGO set, but put them together in a different way to create the boat, car, or house you want.
For the Industrial Metaverse, these building blocks are supporting modules, applications, and software assets that businesses can connect together in different ways. Use application programming interfaces to create new solutions and solve problems and challenges in the industry based on industry business logic. An industrial metaverse solution may be completed by multiple partners, such as technology and network providers, hardware providers, cloud service providers, content creators, and application developers, etc., who jointly create an industrial Metaverse ecosystem, and brings unprecedented innovation capabilities, creativity and efficient collaboration capabilities.
As with any innovative technology, security is the most important. In particular, cyber attacks have surged in recent years, and criminals have used increasingly sophisticated technologies, such as artificial intelligence and ransomware. Therefore, cyber security technology will become even more important in the industrial metaverse. If industrial data is damaged at all, the impact on the enterprise will be huge. At the same time, protecting users’ personal privacy and data shared in virtual collaboration in the industrial metaverse will also be indispensable.
Market Prospects of the Industrial Metaverse
As mentioned earlier, by 2025, the market size of industrial digital twins and simulations and industrial XR extended reality will reach US$22.73 billion, which shows the huge market size of the industrial metaverse. Although we are still far away from the real metaverse world, high-bandwidth and ultra-low latency intelligent, autonomous, cloud-native network construction, infrastructure modernization and upgrading... these problems still need to be solved urgently, but this is important for some people. There are also huge opportunities for companies serving the Yuanverse market. Early users of the Industrial Metaverse will also be concentrated in certain industries, particularly those involving physical assets such as manufacturing, logistics, and transportation. The healthcare industry can also benefit from the Metaverse, especially in areas such as telemedicine and robotic surgery. But more than that, the Metaverse will penetrate into every industry in the future. Although there are still many uncertainties in the Metaverse, perhaps the only thing that is certain is the infinite possibilities of the Metaverse.
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