Industrial

Industrial Metaverse in ARENA2036: Lighthouse examples and innovation ecosystem

The Industrial Metaverse aggregates many digital twins in an integrated overall environment. This opens up simulation and optimization potential on a completely different level: not just small sub-processes, but entire factories can be optimized. ARENA2036 will be the model for this.  

The industrial metaverse has generally come to the fore as a megatrend in recent years. It is said to have the potential to fundamentally change the way a wide range of technologies interact in industry. It creates the link between the real and virtual worlds and is based on the principles of Industry 4.0. The industrial metaverse goes far beyond a mere concept and is more than just a new technology; rather, it represents the convergence of different technologies and concepts. This results in many new application scenarios and innovative opportunities for new business areas and economic interactions. Supporting production, for example, by merging physical technology with digital twins and their seamless interaction is considered an important milestone for production in industry.

The core component of the Industrial Metaverse - particularly in contrast to the Metaverse in the consumer sector - are cognitive digital twins, the virtual equivalents of real buildings, systems, production equipment, etc., which are capable of interacting with each other virtually. Closely linked to this in the industrial metaverse are technology areas such as the Asset Administration Shell, simulation, virtual commissioning, data rooms and VR/AR/XR. These are all areas in which ARENA2036 has various points of contact in the form of expert knowledge, networks, projects and member references.

Real-world laboratory "Industrial Metaverse ARENA2036"

The interaction of real and virtual space is made possible - in line with the basic understanding of the industrial metaverse (see study "CyberLänd. Potentials of the Metaverse for Companies in Baden-Württemberg". Hölzle, K. et al. Fraunhofer) - through appropriate hardware and software enabler technologies. A suitable foundation of framework conditions and infrastructure is also essential. This is where ARENA2036 offers the right conditions: the existing ARENA2036 ecosystem with a member network and experts from industry and science are working on real use cases. Numerous technologies that are considered core and key technologies in the context of the industrial metaverse are part of projects, ARENA2036 initiatives and research projects or products from members. Building on these technical foundations and existing use cases that are already in place, a transfer to the metaverse can be used to show what is already possible in this regard (TRL 7 or 8) and where potential development needs can be identified (TRL 3 or 6). In addition to this potential for the application and further development of the industrial metaverse, ARENA2036 offers the appropriate framework for transfer and demonstration: you can visit ARENA2036 - both real and virtual in perspective - and hold both the real and virtual dimensions next to each other along the use cases (metaverse showcase). This makes added value "tangible" and an ARENA2036 metaverse can become an incubator for scaling in practice.