A pilot project of Valmet Automotive and Telia, one of Finland’s leading ICT companies, is testing a globally pioneering technology that enables experts to collaborate in real time, even from different parts of the world. A service robot has now built a virtual world of the Innovation Center at the Uusikaupunki car plant.
Valmet Automotive's car plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland is piloting a new kind of robot technology. A service robot has made a lidar scan of the plant's Innovation Center, where the company is developing solutions to meet the future needs of the car plant. The pilot is part of the MURO innovation project by VTT and Telia to test the potential of 5G robots.
The service robot scanned the 70-square-meter robot welding cell at the Innovation Center and created a corresponding virtual world, the metaverse. Here you can move freely with VR glasses or follow the view on a pc screen. Visitors see other people who have entered the virtual reality as avatars with whom they can interact.
The industrial metaverse is one of the leading topics in the manufacturing industry today, and Valmet Automotive sees great potential in this new technology.
- Valmet Automotive is particularly interested in location-independent work and the possibility of highly flexible operations. For example, the industrial metaverse open new possibilities in engineering, maintenance, repairs, and training to be carried out remotely – from anywhere in the world, says Antti Havola, Strategy Director, Valmet Automotive.
The metaverse is expected to change the way industry works both significantly and fast. It will also open new opportunities for experimentation. For example, engineering will be made easier when components can be fitted and tested first virtually. With frequent scanning of the area, the metaverse can be viewed in real time.
- The robot experiment at Valmet Automotive is a global pioneer. A similar interactive system has never been implemented before, says Marko Lepola, Business Development Director, Telia.
- I believe that the transition from the metaverse testing phase to actual implementation will take 2-3 years. The next step is to take a customer project to the metaverse. Valmet Automotive intends to be at the forefront of this technological development, says Antti Havola.
Additional information:
Mikael Mäki, Manager, Corporate Communications, Valmet Automotive
+358 50 317 4308
mikael.maki@valmet-automotive.com