Presented by Nvidia
Industrial enterprises—spanning automotive, manufacturing, and electronics—are pursuing digitalization but face challenges due to data silos and collaboration barriers. To tackle these issues, a growing number of organizations across many industries are embracing interoperability through the open-source Universal Scene Description (USD) standard, or OpenUSD, to facilitate diverse use cases throughout the manufacturing pipeline.
“USD is the closest thing to a universal 3D standard available today, yet it remains a de facto standard rather than an internationally recognized standard like PDF or HTML,” says Guy Martin, director of open source and standards at Nvidia. “Industries such as manufacturing, construction, architecture, and engineering need dependable open standards.”
To this end, last year, Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, and Nvidia founded the Alliance for OpenUSD to create true open standards for USD in areas like core specification, materials, and geometry. Notably, at CES 2024, Cedrik Neike, CEO of Siemens Digital Industries, announced Siemens's partnership with Nvidia to develop the next generation of AI-powered 3D universes.
With OpenUSD, companies can digitally design, simulate, operate, and analyze everything from products to internal processes in real-time collaboration. 3D data can be integrated from multiple sources and combined with various industrial data streams—like CAD data, live sensor data, and maintenance records—into a cohesive pipeline.
“OpenUSD’s core strength is its flexible data modeling,” explains Aaron Luk, director of product management at Nvidia and a founding developer of USD at Pixar. “These models enable sharing across simulation tools and AIs, providing valuable insights to all project stakeholders.”
By adopting USD, organizations are removing obstacles, integrating teams, tools, and technologies, and paving the way for the next era of industrial digitalization.
Seamless Collaboration Across Enterprises
A unified standard fosters real-time virtual testing, experimentation, and optimization across teams. For instance, Pegatron, a leading electronics manufacturer, faced integration challenges due to the use of various tools for factory layout, production line simulations, and product design—until OpenUSD arrived.
“In the age of AI, standards that can accurately describe real-world information are essential, and OpenUSD fulfills this requirement,” says Andrew Hsiao, associate vice president at Pegatron. “It allows us to collaboratively plan factories in 3D, identifying and resolving issues before they arise, thus streamlining the automation of production lines.”
Similarly, Wistron Corporation experienced limitations when each team used 3D assets tailored to specific software.
“Adopting USD for 3D asset management has enhanced asset quality and interoperability across diverse applications,” notes John Lu, manufacturing operations director at Wistron. “The visualization and interoperability provided by USD facilitate collaboration and decision-making.”
Seamless 3D data exchange also plays a vital role at Continental, a leading German automotive parts manufacturer. USD supports cross-tool data exchange for tasks like production line planning and virtual Gemba walks.
“Using USD as our exchange standard allows us to utilize data across different tools, avoiding time-consuming conversions and achieving a collaborative ecosystem,” says Benjamin Huber, head of advanced automation & digitalization at Continental. “This harmonized data stream process fosters innovative manufacturing concepts and reduces complexity.”
Innovations Driving Industrial Digitalization
Independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators (SIs) are harnessing OpenUSD to propel digitalization in industrial enterprises. For instance, ipolog GmbH, inspired by BMW’s digitalized smart factory, launched SyncTwin GmbH to focus on developing a comprehensive digital factory twin using OpenUSD.
“This moment unveiled the vast potential of OpenUSD for crafting a complete digital factory twin,” says Michael Wagner, co-founder & CTO, SyncTwin. “It was the breakthrough I had sought for two decades in the digital factory sector.”
SyncTwin is now creating tools with Nvidia Omniverse to dissolve data silos and enhance collaboration in manufacturing planning and execution. Their solutions target unique challenges, such as container transport simulation and optimizing factory layouts.
FlexSim, acquired by Autodesk, developed an Omniverse connector to streamline data sharing in simulation models using OpenUSD.
“In manufacturing, clients benefit from OpenUSD by importing data into their simulations more easily, with less information lost,” explains Phil BoBo, senior manager of software development at FlexSim.
Rockwell Automation has connected their Emulate3D virtual commissioning software to dynamically stream simulations via the Omniverse platform, creating a “forum” for collaborative manufacturing project stakeholders.
“Omniverse has broadened the scope of visualizations to combine multiple digital model disciplines, enhancing collaborative capabilities,” says John Pritchard, business manager at Rockwell Automation.
Hexagon, a leader in digital reality solutions, is working with Nvidia to integrate OpenUSD into its HxDR digital reality and Nexus manufacturing platforms, aiming to enhance reality capture, digital twins, and AI-driven simulation.
“Hexagon’s reality capture data will elevate Omniverse applications, allowing users to continuously update their virtual worlds to reflect real-time changes,” states Frank Suykens, senior vice president of visual computing at Hexagon. “Expect significant growth for OpenUSD applications in industrial digitalization this year.”
SoftServe envisions a collaborative future where designers and engineers can work together in a virtual space—enabling simulations and design validations in real-time.
“Envision a marketplace where vendors offer digital twins that solve automation challenges through simulations ahead of physical asset shipments,” suggests Taras Bachynskyi, VP of technology at SoftServe.
These innovations showcase how enterprises leverage OpenUSD to accelerate time-to-market and reduce costs in product design, manufacturing engineering, and production planning. Discover more about these advancements during OpenUSD Day on Tuesday, March 19, at Nvidia GTC 2024.
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