Building the industrial metaverse with digital twins and industrial IoT

The consumer world has started building early versions of the metaverse. They have an element of appeal through their 3D visualisations, ability to build new avatars, and accelerated sense of decision making around consumer purchases. In other words, a high degree of impact combined with innovative experiences.

A technical description of the metaverse includes visualisation of data and connectivity using 3D rendering, creating virtual spaces and contextual information about objects and their surroundings.

For the business and industrial community, the metaverse has a vastly different set of benefits and appeal.

Industrial metaverse

The industrial metaverse lies at the crossroads of multiple platforms, namely: industrial internet of things, augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual reality, digital twins, blending of real-world elements, contextualised and meaningful data, all helping industrial processes to operate at better and better efficiencies.

The origins it goes back many decades and is linked to the origin of computer aided design. This was the creation of an object in digital space and then transporting it to the physical world for manufacturing. Today, it is not very different and it replicates the real industrial world into a digital world.

But while computer aided design was only objects, the industrial metaverse is vastly larger in scale and can include functioning plants, machinery and other real-life objects.

Creation of the digital twin is a near-real-time coordinated presence between the physical and digital worlds. This could cover machines, industrial plants, group of workers or individual workers.

There are three enabling technology platforms for the industrial metaverse to function:

1. Web3, is required for decentralised web applications that enable users to control their identity and data. Web3 and metaverse complement each other in the ecosystem.

2. The spatial computing technology stack, that integrates and converges the physical and digital worlds.

3. The digital twin created with near-real-time presence, connecting the physical and digital worlds. The digital twins inside the industrial metaverse could be machines, industrial plants, group of workers or individual workers.

The industrial metaverse is not yet a single entity and neither does it exist. Today, it comprises of multiple emerging technologies that promise the next level of interaction between the virtual and physical worlds.

It requires these multiple enabling platforms to work with each other seamlessly. This can include 5G and mobile and multi-access edge computing. Because of the back-and-forth movement of data, from the digital to the real world and back again, the network connectivity must also have low latency and high bandwidth.

To build a successful industrial metaverse, the real-world industrial object must have a host of industrial sensors built into it, that can help to create a digital representation of the industrial object in 3D, or in other word the digital twin. Inside it, the digital twin takes on a much more interactive representation of the real industrial object. Data flows back and forth in near real time between the real object and its digital twin inside the industrial metaverse.

Enabling technologies like the IoT and edge computing are fundamental to make the industrial metaverse function in near real-time. While simulations can also take place in 3D, the digital twin inside the industrial metaverse is much more alive and on a much large scale.

Characteristics and parameters that are seen to improve operational performance and efficiency in the industrial metaverse can be fed back to the real world for assessment. This two-way flow of data can become voluminous and therefore needs advanced network management and edge computing infrastructure to help manage its existence.

The industrial metaverse will help businesses to move from awareness to control. Instead of monitoring the factory floor through digital tools, it will help us to virtually manage it. And automation and robotics will enter both the physical and digital worlds, managing both in near real-time.

To summarise, the metaverse is likely to have its biggest impact not in the consumer space, but on industry and business. It is also likely to change the way we work. Time will reveal the path ahead.

Simran Bagga, Vice President at Omnix Engineering and Foundation Technologies

Read: The role of big data in unlocking the true value of IoT