Siemens Industrial Copilot: AI for factory systems
Siemens is developing software for factories. The "Industrial Copilot" is designed to help communicate with machines, find faults and plan factories.
At CES 2025, Siemens CTO Peter Koerte is presenting the Industrial Copilot, an AI assistant for planning and maintenance of industrial plants.
Industrial company Siemens is developing artificial intelligence to plan and maintain factories. At CES 2024, Siemens spoke about the Industrial Metaverse. In 2025, the keyword will be Industrial AI.
Siemens is already using artificial intelligence in industry. Smart energy management is already reducing CO2 emissions and can reduce the utilization of power grids by 30 percent, says Peter Koerte. The Siemens CTO is responsible for the digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator.
Another problem is the shortage of skilled workers in industry. The experience of skilled workers decreases with shorter periods of employment. This in turn reduces productivity and increases the risk of accidents.
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Siemens Industrial Copilot speaks the language of the machine
Siemens Industrial Copilot is designed to enable employees to make sensible decisions in production, even if they lack many years of experience with the systems. For example, if an industrial machine reports a fault during a thinly staffed shift, Siemens Industrial Copilot is designed to help resolve the problem.
It translates the machine's error codes into natural language and suggests solutions by searching through documents such as manuals or spare parts lists. This is intended to reduce downtimes and make shift handovers more efficient.
Siemens provides the elements for automating the Industrial Copilot. The language model comes from OpenAI and uses Microsoft Azure.
Development teams are to automate repetitive and monotonous tasks such as sensor configuration. The industrial artificial intelligence is designed to provide information from the industrial plant in real time.
Digital twins of products and systems
One component of this is the mixed reality headset from Sony, which was presented last year. Siemens is cooperating with Nvidia to offer its service and to create photorealistic representations of the digital twins.
The poster customer is JetZero, a start-up that is developing a new type of aircraft whose wings merge into the fuselage. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, it is airworthy. JetZero is working with Siemens for the subsequent factory planning, which is scheduled for 2030.
The digital twins are not just CAD representations in the virtual world. For example, Siemens can simulate how components or devices react when they are subjected to shocks. The copilot can optimize components during design in the CAD software Siemens NX (formerly Unigraphics), for example by removing material with the help of AI without compromising stability.
Siemens for startups
The "Siemens for Startups" initiative offers discounted access to Siemens products: a 90 percent discount in the first year, which decreases gradually over the coming years. Interested parties can register online.
Heise Medien is the official media partner of CES 2025.
(akr)
