On February 4,2022, Meta, which had been planned on the comprehensive metaverse plan, plunged 26% on the day in the history of the US stock market by more than $237 billion. On February 16, “the first share of the Universe” Roblox fell 15% after the earnings report, shrinking its market value by about $50 billion. In the past year, the capital market has moved from the metaverse concept, and investors have realized that there is a big gap between the metaverse concept and the reality. The Intelligent Manufacturing Research Center believes that the transformation of the metaverse from concept to application still requires enterprises and scientific research institutions to promote the continuous iteration and update of basic technologies and key equipment, and explore more application scenarios. In particular, the application of metaverse-related technologies in the industrial field will enable various scenarios of the life cycle of industrial products, effectively promote intelligent upgrading in the industrial field, and its application value will be far greater than that in the consumer field.
Industrial metaverse — the future form of intelligent manufacturing
Industrial metaverse is metaverse related technology application in the field of industry, the real industrial environment research and development design, manufacturing, marketing, sales, after-sales service and scene in virtual space to realize comprehensive deployment, through virtual space and real space for industrial improvement and optimization, form a new manufacturing and service system, to reduce costs, improve production efficiency, efficient collaborative effect, promote the development of industrial high quality.
The industrial metaverse, similar to the concept of “digital twin”, is a 1:1 mapping from the real world to the virtual world, and simulates the industrial production in the real world. The industrial metaverse not only has the mapping of the real world, but also has the experience and interaction in the real world. In addition, the industrial metauniverse pays more attention to the coordination of virtual space and real space, so as to realize the virtual operation to guide the real industry.
Industrial metaverse is more like the future form of intelligent manufacturing, to promote the virtual space and real space linkage as the main means, more emphasis on mapping in the virtual space, broaden the entity industry can realize operation, through collaborative work in virtual space, simulation, can industrial each link, scene, make the industrial enterprise to reduce cost, improve production efficiency, promote efficient collaboration between enterprises and enterprises, power industrial high quality development, realize the further upgrade of intelligent manufacturing.
The application scenario will achieve the full product life cycle coverage
Looking into the future, the application scenario of industrial meta-universe will cover the whole life cycle of products from research and development to after-sales service, and guide and promote industrial process optimization and efficiency improvement from “virtual” to “real”. The following starts from the research and development design, production optimization, equipment operation and maintenance, product testing, skills training and other links, looking forward to the possible application scenarios of the industrial meta-universe.
Research and development design
Compared with the current use of industrial software for product design, the research and development design under the application of industrial metaverse related technology will improve the product development efficiency and reduce the product development cost to a greater extent. In terms of product design, the environmental factors of product application can be controlled through the industrial metaverse platform, and intuitive and accurate simulation of the parts of the product based on the product model designed in the industrial metaverse platform, which can effectively verify the product performance. In terms of collaborative design, the industrial Metaverse can break geographical restrictions and support multi-party collaborative design, and users can also participate in product design and experience the designed products on the industrial metaverse platform. In terms of user experience, the product research and development on the industrial metaverse platform is closer to users’ needs and can enhance user experience to a greater extent.
Production optimization
Through the industrial metaverse platform, it can immersive experience the construction and operation process of the virtual intelligent factory, conduct real-time interaction with the equipment and production lines in the virtual intelligent factory, and optimize the production process and carry out intelligent production scheduling more intuitively and conveniently. In the early stage of the construction of intelligent factory, the industrial meta-universe platform can be used to build a virtual intelligent factory consistent with the building structure, production line layout, production process and equipment structure of the real intelligent factory, so as to realize the advance verification of the rationality of capacity configuration, equipment structure, personnel moving and other aspects.
Equipment operation and maintenance
Compared with the predictive maintenance using big data analysis at the present stage, the equipment operation and maintenance based on the industrial meta-universe can break the space limit and effectively improve the response efficiency and service quality of the equipment operation and maintenance. In the virtual space established by the industrial metaspace platform, the operation and maintenance personnel will not be limited by the geographical areas. When the production equipment has problems, they can realize the remote confirmation of the equipment situation in real time and repair the problems in time. For difficult and complex equipment problems, experts from around the world can be gathered through the industrial meta-universe platform to discuss solutions together, so as to improve production efficiency.
Production tests
For products with high standards and complex testing requirements, industrial metaverse can provide virtual environment for test validation and product performance testing. Through the combination of virtual and real to realize the synchronous test of physical space and virtual space, to more intuitively feel the internal and external changes of the product, and to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the test and certification. For example, compared with civil consumer chip products, vehicle grade AI chip due to the variable working environment, high safety requirements, complex functional design, its research and development, testing, certification process is very strict, need to meet a number of international and domestic industry standards. Industrial meta-universe can provide virtual testing space for vehicle-level AI chips. Engineers can test vehicle-level AI chips at a low cost, and can also simulate and experience self-driving cars equipped with AI chips to improve the testing and certification efficiency of vehicle-level AI chips.
Skill training
Industrial universe can effectively improve the efficiency of teaching and training, and provide institutions, enterprises and other organizations with virtual equipment to train students and employees, so that students can operate production equipment more intuitively.At the same time, for extreme special cases such as earthquake and fire, a virtual space can be built through the industrial metaverse platform for relevant personnel to exercise escape routes and test accident handling methods.
Prepare for the arrival of the “industrial meta-universe” era
On the one hand, we need to accelerate the construction of new infrastructure projects such as digitalization and computing power, and strengthen research on basic technologies such as cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. First, we will continue to promote the construction of digital infrastructure, promote the deployment and application of “double gigabit” networks, support industrial enterprises in using new network technologies and advanced and applicable technologies, and provide high bandwidth, low latency and high reliability network access capabilities for the industrial universe. Second, accelerate the construction of data centers, carry out actions to improve computing power, promote the further opening of network transmission channels between national hub nodes, accelerate the implementation of the “east number and west calculation” project, and improve the level of cross-regional computing power scheduling. Third, encourage universities, research institutes, enterprises and other organizations to promote research on cloud computing, big data and other technologies to accelerate the process of industrial metaverse transformation.
On the other hand, the research and development and application of VR / AR and other related hardware equipment should be strengthened, and the technology upgrading of key equipment such as optical lenses, display panels, master control chips, sensors and memory should be promoted. First is to promote the key core technology “list” action, for chip core technology, sensors, memory and tools research and development set up special research projects, universities, research institutes, enterprises and other organizations “list”, called for capable organization around the weak links to carry out independent research and development or joint research. Second, to accelerate the modeling, simulation industry software development, support based enterprise continuous development and improve the research and development design of industrial software, encourage social capital, industry fund support industrial software development, close the current research and development design industrial software gap, accelerate the short board, lay the foundation for the universe can assign industry.
In the end:
As an industrial company, while following the heat of the metaverse, we still need to clear the fog and find the real value. In the metaverse, a virtual world based on data, there can be nothing without data. Knowing that data is the basis and soil of all digitalization and intelligence. Only by being good at collecting, using and analyzing data, can we grasp the major opportunities in the era of rapid change.
