As part of the large-scale collaboration involving KION Group, NVIDIA and Accenture, Dematic recently demonstrated a digital twin for full-scale intralogistics solutions, built with NVIDIA Omniverse technologies.
Credit: KION
The GTC - GPU Technology Conference – has been held since 2009 and organized by NVIDIA. It is a global AI conference which brings together developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and IT professionals. Topics focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines.
The digital twin, which replicates the physical equipment within the Dematic Solution Center, will be deployed alongside Dematic’s next-generation software solutions, providing deep-insight analytics of complex inter-process dynamics. Together, these technologies allow for real-time optimization for material and order flow scenarios to be explored within a virtualized environment. The goal is to transform supply chain operations by improving efficiency, adaptability, and cost effectiveness. At the GTC conference, participants saw the interactive dashboard in action, using Dematic's Grand Rapids Solution Center as the model. Accenture assisted Dematic in the development of both the Omniverse digital twin and the interactive dashboard.
“Our digital twin serves as the single source of truth for understanding and improving complex supply chain solutions before, during and after installation,” noted Rob Smith, CEO of KION Group. “Together with NVIDIA technology, our solution allows our customers to use the power of physical AI to save huge amounts of time, CaPex and operating cost and gives them the ability to constantly adapt their operations to the changing conditions in their supply chains.”
Digital Conceptualization of a Solution Design
The digital twin will enable Dematic's project teams to validate controls and software prior to on-site installation, significantly accelerating the go-live and ramp-up phases. Customers can conceptualize the physical layouts and dynamic material flows of a solution design before it is built. After construction, operators can run a large number of scenarios on their site’s digital twin to explore planned or actual changes in their business profile, including seasonal variations.
As announced in January, KION, NVIDIA, and Accenture are also collaborating to leverage physical AI with intelligent stationary cameras and autonomous forklifts as well as the latest automation and robotics solutions to create highly realistic digital twins with the NVIDIA Omniverse. It allows customers to digitally map every asset in their warehouse in real time – from manual forklifts and autonomous vehicles to the exact location of goods. Combined with the ability to run an infinite number of scenarios, this can also help customers define ideal layouts for new warehouses and improve warehouse management by predicting peak loads, ensuring worker safety and more effective planning of resources.
Recently at LogiMAT in Stuttgart, Germany, KION subsidiary Linde Material Handling introduced its first physical AI-powered solution, built with the NVIDIA Omniverse and the “Mega” Blueprint, to optimize vehicle coordination and route planning at scale, with AI-powered trucks capturing and processing live operational data within a digital twin.
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