The Industrial Metaverse is built on well-proven technologies and will initially be available as extensions for Internet browsers and messaging programs as new use cases are developed and deployed.
Practical applications of the underlying metaworld technologies are already producing results in the business world.
An industrial metauniverse is the use of a reliable and consistent digital double based on industrial data and artificial intelligence capabilities to enable seamless interaction with multiple people.
With these three elements, the industrial metaworld is a natural layer that organizations can implement on top of their existing digital infrastructure to future-proof their business.
In fact, McKinsey estimates that the metaverse could pave the way for a massive increase in value of around $5 trillion by 2030.
Destroy the myths
Although still in its infancy, the Industrial Metaverse brings together the physical and digital worlds in a way that supports innovation in sectors such as manufacturing, energy and infrastructure.
From modeling and prototyping new designs to simulating the physical deployment and use of augmented reality in the field, the industrial metauniverse will include many different technologies to support a wide range of use cases.
Each organization will be able to create its own industrial metauniverse. This can be the totality of your operating assets or simply represent each asset individually.
Access to this metauniverse will be strictly controlled by role privileges and security protections in the same way that your financial systems are currently protected.
Each company will own and control its own industrial metauniverse.
Also read: The Cloud, the Key to Artificial Intelligence, Web3 and the Metaverse: Gartner
How can stakeholders collaborate?
To collaborate in the industrial metaverse, workers must be able to use any device they want, connect to the software they need, view trusted data from their digital counterpart, and collaborate on a shared application.
In some use cases, for example, office workers and factory colleagues may interact in the same virtual environment, but one may use a tablet and in-ear headphones while the other uses an XR headset. In addition, everyday devices may soon adopt exciting new technologies, just as biometrics are built into today’s smartphones.
Simply put, multiple devices will allow entry into each company’s industrial meta-universe, just as workers use company software from their laptops, mobile phones and tablets.
The Industrial Metaverse deploys existing technologies on new hardware and in new ways.
Where is it used?
Current uses of industrial metauniverse technologies, including augmented reality (XR) and the digital doppelganger, are in maintenance and repair, industrial design and prototyping, quality control in manufacturing and collaboration, communication and workforce training.
For example, companies like Starbucks Coffee already use an integrated HMI and SCADA platform to view production and inventory data from the shop floor to the top floor, which in turn supports end-to-end solutions.
Similarly, digital twin solutions (virtual copies of physical assets or facilities) increased operational efficiency through cloud collaboration, reducing time to market by more than 50% for Norwegian company Aker Carbon Capture.
Elsewhere, Duke Energy, a North Carolina-based power and natural gas company, used AI solutions to save millions of dollars by reducing outages, including $34 million in savings from a single downtime.
