Volkswagen Reduces Time to Market with Digital Planning in Wandelbots NOVA
Volkswagen is using Wandelbots NOVA to conduct virtual planning and simulation of a pick-and-place application with a dynamic robot path in NVIDIA Omniverse. The varying pickup positions of the workpiece are detected by a vision system and translated into robot movement within NOVA's NVIDIA Omniverse extension. This process helps Volkwagen to optimize the configuration of robots and peripheries for pick-and-place applications before physical implementation.
Project Highlights
About Volkswagen
The Transparent Factory of Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH is the production site for the VW ID.3 and a hub within the Volkswagen Group for testing innovative production solutions.
Objective
Utilize real-world physics-based virtual planning to create a digital twin for a pick-and-place application during horn signal assembly to optimize the cycle time.
Solution
Using Wandelbots NOVA's NVIDIA Omniverse extension, a digital twin of the signal horn assembly pick-and-place application was created. This allowed for the optimal configuration of the robot, tool, vision system, and dynamic robot paths for the future setup of the physical cell.
Impact
During the planning phase, the ideal configuration of the automation cell was achieved without any hardware resource investment. Thanks to the 1:1 transfer of the virtual planning to the physical cell, the time-to-market of the physical cell is drastically reduced.
Challenges and Processes
Volkswagen understands that with the rising demand for electric cars (EVs), efficient manufacturing processes are crucial. They help manufacturers meet market needs while keeping costs down, optimizing resources, and ensuring timely vehicle delivery in a growing EV market. Volkswagen has partnered with Wandelbots to optimize their horn assembly lines by testing various robots, tools, and configurations in a virtual environment first, reducing the need for costly physical prototypes and rework in the future.
This pick-and-place application is part of the assembly process for installing a signal horn in the Volkswagen ID.3 electric vehicle. The robot's mechanical gripper picks up the signal horn from a box, with varying pickup points for each horn. The picking process is done by 3D vision integrated into Wandelbots NOVA. The vision system detects the position and orientation of the parts and communicates the positions with the NOVA robot program so that the gripper picks up and places the horns accurately for further processing.
To effectively reduce the product development cycle, virtual planning in the horn assembly process must be precisely executed by its physical counterpart. For this level of accuracy, Volkswagen needs consistent data continuity from the virtual environment to the real robot cell. Wandelbots NOVA ensures this by simplifying scene design and configuration within NVIDIA Omniverse's physics-based digital training environment. The NVIDIA Omniverse extension in NOVA connects Omniverse Isaac Sim instances to NOVA. This enables Volkswagen to make the most of Isaac Sim's powerful simulation engine, which is grounded in real-world physics, through a user-friendly interface on NOVA. With NOVA's Omniverse extension, Volkswagen engineers can efficiently test and iterate robot processes in virtual environments, ensuring synchronized interaction between digital twins and physical robot cells.
We hope that planning with NOVA in Omniverse will allow us to continue using everything we already use in digital planning today and to be at the digital construction site much earlier than it’s currently possible. This ultimately gives us a time advantage and also a higher level of maturity in securing our planning results.
Dr. Dirk Thieme
Head of New Mobility and Innovations
Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH
Impact & Results
The entire system was first planned by Volkswagen virtually, without spending a single euro on hardware procurement. This approach demonstrated the benefits of process automation without requiring upfront investments. The NOVA library offers ultra-realistic 3D models of robot arms and peripherals from various manufacturers which allows Volkswagen to easily create digital twins and identify the optimal configuration of cells before physical implementation.
Additionally, all robot paths and motions created in NOVA's Omniverse extension are implemented in a one-to-one manner during physical deployment, significantly enhancing product development efficiency. This intuitive interface in NOVA notably reduces the time-to-market from virtual planning to the commissioning of the physical system.