GTC 2020 -- BMW Group has selected the new
NVIDIA Isaac™ robotics platform to enhance its automotive factories
— utilizing logistics robots built on advanced AI computing and
visualization technologies, the companies announced today.
The collaboration centers on implementing an end-to-end system
based on NVIDIA technologies — from training and testing through to
deployment — with robots developed using one software architecture,
running on NVIDIA’s open Isaac robotics platform. BMW Group’s
objective is to enhance logistics factory flow to produce
custom-configured cars more rapidly and efficiently. Once
developed, the system will be deployed to BMW Group factories
worldwide.
“BMW Group’s use of NVIDIA’s Isaac robotics platform to
reimagine their factory is revolutionary,” said Jensen Huang,
founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “BMW Group is leading the way to the era
of robotic factories, harnessing breakthroughs in AI and robotics
technologies to create the next level of highly customizable,
just-in-time, just-in-sequence manufacturing.”
“BMW is committed to the Power of Choice for our customers —
customization of diverse features across diverse vehicles for
diverse customers,” said Jürgen Maidl, senior vice president of
Logistics for the BMW Group. “Manufacturing high-quality, highly
customized cars, on multiple models, with higher volume, on one
factory line requires advanced computing solutions from end-to-end.
Our collaboration with NVIDIA allows us to develop the future of
factory logistics today and to ultimately delight BMW Group
customers worldwide.”
The collaboration uses NVIDIA DGX™ AI systems and Isaac
simulation technology to train and test the robots; NVIDIA Quadro®
ray-tracing GPUs to render synthetic machine parts to enhance the
training; and a new lineup of multiple AI-enabled robots built on
the Isaac software development kit, powered by high-performance
NVIDIA Jetson™ and EGX™ edge computers.
BMW Group’s supply chain takes millions of parts flowing into a
factory from more than 4,500 supplier sites, involving 230,000
unique part numbers, and in growing volumes as BMW Group’s car
sales have doubled over the past 10 years to 2.5 million vehicles.
Moreover, BMW Group vehicles are offered to customers with an
average of 100 different options, resulting in 99 percent of
customer orders being uniquely different for each other. This
creates an immense challenge for factory logistics.
To optimize the enormous complexity of this material flow,
autonomous AI-powered logistics robots now assist the current
production process in order to assemble highly customized vehicles
on the same production line.
“Ultimately, the sheer volume of possible configurations became
a challenge to BMW Group production in three fundamental areas –
computing, logistics planning, and data analysis,” Maidl said.
BMW Group’s response is to use NVIDIA’s Isaac robotics platform
to develop five AI-enabled robots to improve their logistics
workflow, powered by a variety of NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier™ and EGX
edge computers. These include both navigation robots to transport
material autonomously, as well as manipulation robots to select and
organize parts.
Developed on the NVIDIA Isaac SDK, the robots utilize a number
of powerful deep neural networks, addressing perception,
segmentation, pose estimation and human pose estimation to perceive
their environment, detect objects, navigate autonomously and move
objects. These robots are trained both on real and synthetic data
using NVIDIA GPUs to render ray-traced machine parts in a variety
of lighting and occlusion conditions to augment real data.
The real and synthetic data are then used to train deep neural
networks on NVIDIA DGX systems. The robots are then continuously
tested in NVIDIA’s Isaac Simulators for both navigation and
manipulation, operating on NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform, where
multiple BMW Group personnel in different geographies can all work
in one simulated environment.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA‘s (NASDAQ: NVDA) invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the
growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics
and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep
learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing — with the
GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars
that can perceive and understand the world. More information at
http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/.
For further information, contact:
David PintoPR ManagerNVIDIA
Corporation+1-408-566-6950dpinto@nvidia.com
Certain statements in this press release including, but not
limited to, statements as to: automotive factories incorporating
robots built on the Isaac platform; the benefits and impact of the
NVIDIA and BMW collaboration; the collaboration implementing an
end-to-end system based on NVIDIA technologies; the system being
deployed to BMW Group factories worldwide; BMW Group leading the
way in the era of AI factories, harnessing advanced computing
technologies and what it is creating; the collaboration allowing
BMW to develop the future of factory logistics and delight
customers; the collaboration using NVIDIA DGX AI systems, Isaac
simulation technology, NVIDIA Quadro ray-tracing GPUs, and
AI-enabled robots powered by NVIDIA computers; the growing parts,
volumes and vehicles from BMW Group that creates challenges for
factory logistics; the challenges for BMW Group production; how BMW
Group is using the NVIDIA Isaac robotics platform and its benefits
and impact; and how the robots are built, trained and tested are
forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and
uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different
than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially include: global economic conditions;
our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and
test our products; the impact of technological development and
competition; development of new products and technologies or
enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market
acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design,
manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences
or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces;
unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when
integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from
time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not
limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the
company's website and are available from NVIDIA without charge.
These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future
performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as
required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these
forward-looking statements to reflect future events or
circumstances.
© 2020 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the
NVIDIA logo, DGX, Jetson, Jetson AGX Xavier, NVIDIA EGX, NVIDIA
Isaac, NVIDIA Omniverse and Quadro are trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective
companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing,
availability and specifications are subject to change without
notice.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/796370b6-e227-47b2-8d4a-c1b0be3ceb79
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