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Siemens Unveils Innovations in industrial AI and Digital Twin Technology at CES 2025

by | Jan 17, 2025 | Automation, Business, News, Technology

While competitors seem to be either retrenching or maintaining the status quo, Siemens used a large presence at the CES show in Las Vegas to promote its invigorated presence.

  • Siemens brings Industrial AI to the Edge of the factory floor for secure access to large language models
  • Aviation startup JetZero chooses Siemens Xcelerator platform to enable development of groundbreaking blended wing aircraft
  • New “Siemens for Startups” program and collaboration with Amazon Web Services AWS to democratize industrial technology for small companies
  • Siemens collaborates with NVIDIA to deliver physically based visualization for product lifecycle management
  • Siemens and Sony corporation deliver immersive design using innovative mixed-reality headset and NX Software

Industrial AI

Siemens is showcasing its vision for the future where data, AI and software-defined automation will converge to enable unprecedented flexibility, optimization and continuous improvement across the world’s industries, for companies of any size. This ambition is at the heart of Siemens’ presence at CES 2025, the world’s most influential tech event. Siemens – the global leader in industrial software –demonstrated how its technologies are empowering customers to take bold leaps in industrial innovation.

“Industrial AI is a game-changer that will create significant positive impact in the real world across all industries. Industrial AI allows us to harness the vast amounts of data generated in industrial environments and turn it into insights that drive real business impact. We are adding new industrial AI capabilities across the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to enable our customers to stay competitive, resilient and sustainable in an increasingly complex world,” said Peter Koerte, Member of the Managing Board, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy officer, Siemens AG. 

Siemens is bringing Industrial AI directly to the shop floor with the new Siemens Industrial Copilot for Operations, enabling AI tasks to run as close as possible to machines. This facilitates rapid, real-time decision making for shop floor operators and maintenance engineers, boosting productivity, operational efficiency and minimizing downtime. The Siemens Industrial Copilot ecosystem is continuously evolving to offer AI capabilities across the industrial value chain and into sectors including discrete and process manufacturing, infrastructure, and mobility. This suite of copilots can enhance human-machine collaboration across all experience levels, helping to accelerate development times and innovation cycles. The Siemens Industrial Copilot will be integrated with the Industrial Edge ecosystem, which has been enhanced with AI for deploying, operating and managing AI models within the production environment.

Blended Wing Aircraft Concept JetZero

JetZero Selects Siemens Xcelerator Platform  

During Siemens’ press conference at CES 2025, the company announced an agreement with JetZero, a pioneering aviation startup working to build the future of sustainable air travel, to collaborate on the development and production of JetZero’s revolutionary blended wing aircraft. The innovative blended wing design aims to improve fuel efficiency by 50 percent, reduce noise and deliver the promise of zero carbon emissions by 2035. JetZero will leverage the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform to design, manufacture and operate their new aircraft. 

JetZero is planning to build “Factory of the Future”, a new greenfield factory in the United States where they intend to tightly integrate Siemens’ automation hardware, software and services to help it achieve its remarkably ambitious vision encompassing electrification, automation and digitalization of both the aircraft and its production. The JetZero aircraft and its associated manufacturing operations will be simulated virtually using comprehensive digital twins – enabling the company to de-risk the manufacturing process, validate the approach and scale processes long before any ground is broken or jets take to the skies.

“Siemens is giving us the confidence to take a leap, not just a step, in revolutionizing air travel,” said JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary. “Their digital twin and industrial metaverse technologies will be instrumental in helping us design, build and operate the world’s first fully digital aircraft, delivering a better experience for passengers and airlines while also reducing fuel consumption by 50 percent.”

Siemens democratizes industrial tech for startups

Siemens’ presence at CES also highlighted the company’s commitment to enabling startups and companies of all sizes to use its industrial metaverse technologies. Through the new Siemens for Startups program, innovators of any size have access to the intelligence, ecosystems and technologies they need to turn their big ideas into world-changing innovations. Siemens is providing access to venture partnering and clienting services along with dramatically reduced cost access to software and hardware from the Siemens Xcelerator open business platform. In addition, Siemens is collaborating with Amazon Web Services to offer AWS credits, business development resources and access to the AWS Activate program for technical and go-to-market support.

Collaborating with NVIDIA to bring photorealism to PLM

Together with NVIDIA, Siemens announced new additions to the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform, including the Teamcenter Digital Reality Viewer powered by NVIDIA Omniverse, which brings large-scale, physically based visualization directly into the product lifecycle management (PLM) system. This capability also enables teams to collaborate in a secure, digital twin environment using their live 3D data, reducing errors and data discrepancies while streamlining workflows and decision-making.

“Our continued collaboration with NVIDIA will be transformative for our customers, empowering them to virtualize and visualize product and plants like never before. Bringing together the best-in-class capabilities of each company, we’re equipping customers with the tools they need to make informed decisions, optimize their operations and accelerate their digital transformation,” said Koerte.

Enabling immersive engineering with Sony

In collaboration with the Sony Corporation, Siemens is delivering a new solution for immersive engineering that brings together Siemens NX software for product engineering with a breakthrough head-mounted display from Sony to enable content creation for the industrial metaverse. Now available for pre-order and shipping beginning in February, Siemens’ new Immersive Engineering toolset brings the power of mixed reality to the product engineering and manufacturing community, enabling high-fidelity mixed reality and 3D-focused collaboration. 

“In the era of digital twins, Siemens and Sony have collaborated closely to bring NX Immersive Designer to market. With 4K OLED Microdisplays, intuitive controls and the comfortable design, closely integrated with Siemens’ advanced software, we firmly believe this new immersive engineering solution will pave the way for the future of engineering.” said Seiya Amatatsu, Incubation Center, XR Technology Development Division, Sony Corporation.

Introducing Designcenter for product engineering

Koerte was joined on stage at CES by Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO, Siemens Digital Industries Software, to unveil Siemens’ new Designcenter software suite, which brings together its portfolio of design and engineering software including Solid Edge and NX software in one unified offering so that companies of any size can design and collaborate using the industry-leading Parasolid modeling kernel.

“A lot of companies make their design software available to small businesses or to the very largest enterprises. Designcenter is unique in that it is truly open and accessible for everyone – companies of every size can scale with the same solution set, their data in the same format – without interruption,” said Hemmelgarn.

Technology to transform the everyday 

At the Siemens booth in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Siemens is showcasing how its technology transforms the everyday, for everyone, these examples include:

Spinnova is a Finnish technology company that enables circularity in textile manufacturing with sustainable and chemical-free fabric production using Siemens’ Digital Twin technologies and factory automation.

Wayout International , a Swedish water technology company developing a proprietary drinking water production solution to improve personal health and well-being in daily life using Siemens’ edge computing, digital twin technologies and Insights Hub, the industrial IoT as a service solution from Siemens.

Desert Control is a Norwegian startup aiming to revolutionize sustainable agriculture and urban greening in regions suffering from desertification, fostering agricultural prosperity and healthy green space using Siemens’ Industrial Operations X.

Arc is an American company focused on the electrification of the marine industry and making boating more modern, enjoyable, and sustainable using Siemens’ NX, Teamcenter and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software.

Learn more about Siemens’ presence at CES 2025.

How Ignition Fits Within the Purdue Model

by | Jan 16, 2025 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management

I have written several times over the past decade about how the Industrial Internet of Things and such hardware advancements as the Edge have blown up the Purdue Pyramid Model of industrial Architecture. Especially as an information model.

Rather than a static hierarchy, information can flow from source to consumer bypassing layers as required.

However, the Purdue Model (and ISA95) certainly do describe different types of functions of a manufacturing enterprise. How these functions are distributed and how they interrelate has undergone subtle changes over the years, yet they remain relevant.

Inductive Automation recently published an article explaining how its Ignition platform fits within the Purdue model. It’s an interesting read. Certainly there remain levels of applicability within the model. It depends upon what you are building. 

Check out the article.

Leaseweb Launches Highly Efficient Virtual Private Server Infrastructure

by | Jan 15, 2025 | Cloud, Enterprise IT, Operations Management, Technology

Technology advancements and innovations plus applications solving bigger problems have led my work, research, and writing from virtual PLCs to virtual servers. That’s why I have loved technology ever since I was 14 and soldering resistors, capacitors, and coils into circuits.

Here is a Dutch company (the product is available globally, of course) that has launched a “highly efficient” Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution. 

Some of the year-end prognoses sent my way (many sort of self serving) predicted les reliance on cloud and a return to more on prem solutions. Perhaps this company provides help both ways.

Their blurb touts, “Powered by High Performance CPUs, Local NVMe Storage and Lightning-fast 10 Gbps Uplink Speed, Packages Start at Just €3.99/month.”

Leaseweb Global, a cloud services and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, January 14 announced the launch of a new highly efficient Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution. Designed for businesses that need a combination of exceptional price-performance, fast local storage and easy deployment, Leaseweb VPS packages start at just €3.99/month to deliver affordable solutions that don’t compromise on quality.

Leaseweb’s new VPS solution provides customers with the flexibility to expand their infrastructure as their business needs grow. Delivered via a low-touch, self-service portal, it requires limited technical expertise for setup or management, enabling users to configure their server, monitor resources and manage snapshots with ease. This makes it ideal for businesses seeking a straightforward, scalable and efficient hosting service, as well as those looking for an entry-level solution to Leaseweb Public Cloud.

Technical specifications keep advancing.

With lightning-fast 10Gbps uplink speed, and powered by high performance processors and local NVMe storage, the Leaseweb VPS solution provides ample compute, RAM and generous traffic across all packages. In addition, built-in security and reliability features, including firewalls, DDoS protection and ISO-certified data centers, offer peace of mind and comprehensive protection for all customers. For those customers wanting to include backup, this is available as an add-on service.

“Our new VPS solution has been designed from the ground up to offer the ideal balance of performance, usability and cost,” said Mathijs Heikamp, Director Product Management at Leaseweb Global. “By combining the latest hardware, advanced automation and an intuitive self-service portal, we’re delivering a cloud infrastructure solution that can effortlessly adapt to customer requirements.”

Here is information about Leaseweb since this company is new to me—and perhaps to you.

Leaseweb is a leading Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider serving a worldwide portfolio of 20,000 customers ranging from SMBs to Enterprises. Services include Public Cloud, Private Cloud,  Dedicated Servers ,  Colocation,  Content Delivery Network , and Cyber Security Services supported by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 80,000 servers, Leaseweb has provided infrastructure for mission-critical websites, Internet applications, email servers, security, and storage services since 1997. The company operates 28 data centers in locations across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, all of which are backed by a superior worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 10 Tbps.

Leaseweb offers services through its various Leaseweb Sales Entities which are Leaseweb Netherlands B.V., Leaseweb USA, Inc., Leaseweb Singapore PTE. LTD, Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH, Leaseweb Australia Ltd., Leaseweb UK Ltd, Leaseweb Japan KK, Leaseweb Hong Kong LTD, and Leaseweb Canada Inc.

Provide Help for Californians

by | Jan 13, 2025 | News

Had I lived in California, I most likely would not have voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor. I’ve since experienced a different side of the Governator. He sent an email a couple of years ago touting the “positive side of the Internet.” I subscribed to the Pump Club newsletter and was an original member of the Pump Club app. He and his colleagues have built a site that positively reinforces people in their struggles to live a healthier life—fitness and nutrition.

We have been out of the country for 2.5 weeks on holiday but have kept abreast of some news. We were aware of the devastating fires sweeping through populated city neighborhoods. We are also aware of how some people gleefully have posted Schadenfreude messages about wealthy people getting their just desserts or politically motivated posts.

Consider that real people have lost everything. Not just physical property, but also memories that are sometime irreplaceable. Consider also the thousands of firefighters and support people working to help those in need. Those of you who have experienced tornados or floods can understand.

Arnold (whose house is close to the fireline himself) posted on today’s newsletter to remember all those who help out. And reminded us that complaining or posting social media comments do nothing to help. He noted the many visits to the front lines while he was governor.

Rather than complain or dismiss, he offered links to some organizations he’s worked with in the past where you might consider donating.

The LAFD Foundation: Currently looking for donations to get more gear to firefighters battling the blaze 

The CalFire Benevolent Foundation: Supports firefighters and their families, as well as burn victims and disaster relief 

The California Fire Foundation: Supports firefighters, families, and communities impacted by fires. 

World Central Kitchen: Every time there is a disaster, Jose’s team is there. They’re in LA feeding evacuees. 

Thank you.

Qualcomm Aware Unveils New Services to Drive Connected Intelligence

by | Jan 9, 2025 | Automation, Technology

 CES goes on this week in Las Vegas. Qualcomm is there; I am not. But…I have news. I’ve also heard that Qualcomm is quietly taking chunks of business from Nvidia. Not sure about that, but the company does put out some quality chips.

This news regards Qualcomm Aware, a platform enhancing applications like IoT.

Highlights:

• Qualcomm Aware adds observability, monitoring and location services to enable the development of IoT solutions that meet specific needs and challenges of consumers and enterprises across a wide range of industries and use cases.

• By pre-integrating Qualcomm Aware software across select Qualcomm Technologies and third-party processors, Qualcomm Technologies will provide a simple, fast and cost-effective mechanism for developers and enterprises to access data on the state, health, status and location of device deployments.

At Consumer Electronics Show 2025, Qualcomm Technologies announced the next evolution of the Qualcomm Aware Platform, a cloud-based services platform that allows companies to add observability, monitoring, and location capabilities to intelligently connected devices across industries, including logistics, retail, energy, smart home, robotics and more. As a key component of the broader IoT Solutions Framework, Qualcomm Aware will eventually be pre-integrated across select Qualcomm Technologies chipsets and third-party hardware—adding value for OEMs and ODMs, enterprise users, distributors, retailers, and consumers.

As a horizontal enablement platform, Qualcomm Aware allows for a highly integrated way to add cloud-based observability and insights, geolocation, fine indoor positioning, firmware updates, and device management services to connected devices. This means that device manufacturers can unlock new insights on the connected devices they sell and take preventative actions to fix and troubleshoot devices. Similarly, retailers can understand how often their high-value inventory turns over and get alerts if items are stolen. Distributors can also view delivery efficiency and accuracy metrics for their fleets, and users of those devices can add longevity to devices by always having them equipped with the latest software, operating system, and features. 

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