Schaeffler Leverages Wandelbots NOVA as Its Physical AI Platform
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Technology partnership accelerates the development of AI-based robotics applications and reduces costs
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Schaeffler and Wandelbots partner to develop a Physical AI platform for global manufacturing
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Automation costs can be significantly reduced
Berlin | October 22, 2026 | German deep-tech company Wandelbots and Schaeffler, The Motion Technology Company, have entered a technology partnership. Building on the Wandelbots NOVA platform, the partners are developing a Physical AI platform for Schaeffler that connects and centrally orchestrates AI models, simulation and robotics applications in production. This enables robotics applications to scale globally, from development and validation through to manufacturing. Wandelbots and Schaeffler presented details of the collaboration in a session at NVIDIA GTC in Berlin.
The collaboration centers on advancing the open Wandelbots platform for industrial and humanoid robotics. The aim is to significantly simplify the development, testing and cross-site rollout of robotics applications. With NOVA, automation solutions can be developed, digitally tested and rolled out across the global production network, regardless of manufacturer or machine type. The solution is set to become available to all Schaeffler plants worldwide.
The goal is to cut the cost of automation solutions by up to 40 percent over their entire lifecycle, in both new and existing production environments. In doing so, the partners are laying the groundwork for scaling Physical AI and further digitalizing Schaeffler’s global production.
Christian Piechnick, CEO and co-founder of Wandelbots, says: “Physical AI has the potential to significantly reduce manufacturing costs while dramatically increasing production flexibility. Its technical feasibility has been convincingly demonstrated over the past twelve months. What matters now is that capabilities can be developed efficiently, transferred across different systems and deployed reliably in production. That is exactly what NOVA is built for: not as an off-the-shelf product, but as a foundation on which companies like Schaeffler build their own Physical AI platforms. Together, we are showing how applications move faster from development into production and scale across entire production networks.”
Dr. Jochen Schröder, Executive Board Member for Production, Supply Chain Management, and Procurement at Schaeffler AG, says: “Anyone who wants to shape the future of production must rethink automation. Flexibility and scalability are today’s decisive success factors in global competition. Together with Wandelbots, we are bringing state-of-the-art Physical AI directly into industrial operations. In doing so, we are underscoring our ambition to be a technology pioneer and taking Schaeffler’s production network to the next level of digitalization.”
From Simulation to Production: How NOVA Supports Schaeffler
Wandelbots NOVA is a technological foundation of Schaeffler’s new Physical AI platform. NOVA decouples application logic from the hardware and unifies AI models, digital twins, machines and production data in a single software environment. This makes the hardware interchangeable – from industrial robots and mobile systems to humanoid robots. Schaeffler builds on this foundation with its own process expertise and automation capabilities, as well as third-party applications. NVIDIA Omniverse and NVIDIA Isaac Sim are used for virtual testing: production processes are first simulated, validated and optimized digitally, then transferred to the shop floor via the same software layer.
The partnership also aims to minimize “time-to-skill.” Building on Wandelbots NOVA, Schaeffler will drive the development of reusable robotic skills and build a skill library spanning simulation and training through to industrial deployment. Once developed, skills can be digitally validated, centrally managed and applied to additional systems and sites.
From the First Project to a Development Standard
The partnership builds seamlessly on joint projects in which simulation with NOVA significantly reduced development time per application by fully validating processes, cycle times and quality inspections in the digital twin. Wandelbots NOVA controls both the virtual and the physical system via the same software layer. The logic validated in simulation goes into production unchanged. In a robot-assisted packaging cell, for example, development time was cut by around two weeks per application. Correction loops that previously took weeks to months were significantly reduced. The result is a foundation for advancing software-defined manufacturing across Schaeffler’s entire production network, which comprises several thousand robotic systems.
Project details: wandelbots.com/schaeffler-case-study
Visuals for Download · Image source: Schaeffler / Wandelbots
About Wandelbots
Wandelbots builds the infrastructure for Physical AI. With Wandelbots NOVA, companies turn robots and automation into software-defined capabilities that work regardless of manufacturer or form factor. NOVA unifies AI, digital twins based on NVIDIA Omniverse and industrial execution in one platform, enabling AI-defined manufacturing. Together with partners such as NVIDIA, Deutsche Telekom and EY, Wandelbots helps manufacturers deploy, operate and continuously optimize intelligent automation at scale. Learn more at www.wandelbots.com.
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