Schaeffler Transforms Factory Automation and Human-Robot Collaboration
At Hannover Messe 2025, Schaeffler, in partnership with Accenture and Avanade, demonstrated a real-world industrial automation solution that integrates digital twins, advanced robotics, and generative AI on Microsoft technologies. The proof-of-concept leverages NVIDIA Omniverse for virtual factories, Microsoft Fabric for data aggregation and analytics, and generative AI-powered agents for live factory operations. The solution allows Schaeffler to plan optimal facility layouts, simulate and test humanoid robot fleet management for tasks such as material handling and kitting, and enhance collaboration between humans and robots. Data from simulations is used to optimize live operations, and staff can interact with the system via natural language queries, improving production insights and accelerating issue resolution. This pioneering approach promises to increase flexibility, productivity, and operational excellence for Schaeffler’s Schweinfurt plant, and sets a new standard for human-AI-robot collaboration in manufacturing environments.
- Organization
- Schaeffler AG
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Location
- Germany
- Published
- January 2025
Reported outcomes
Strategic outcomes
Primary read
Use case focus
Showing 3 of 5
- 1factory automation
- 2robot fleet management
- 3digital twins
- Need to optimize factory layouts and workflows to improve efficiency and flexibility.
- Growing demand for scalable automation beyond manual and traditional robotic systems.
- Requirement to reduce downtime and commissioning times for new factory configurations.
- Increasing expectations for seamless collaboration between humans, robots, and automation systems.
- Need to provide production staff with intuitive, timely insights to resolve issues faster.
- Developed digital twins of factories and warehouses using NVIDIA Omniverse for advanced simulation.
- Integrated Microsoft Fabric to aggregate simulation and live performance data for real-time analytics.
- Deployed generative AI-powered factory agent for production insights and operational support.
- Simulated, tested, and managed fleets of AMRs, cobots, and humanoid robots (e.g., Agility Digit, Sanctuary Phoenix) in digital twin environments.
- Enabled natural language interface for staff to interact with dashboards and simulation data via generative AI.
- Reduced commissioning and layout optimization times for new and existing facilities.
- Improved flexibility and overall equipment effectiveness via data-driven simulation and optimization.
- Enabled faster issue detection and resolution for factory staff using natural language production insights.
- Enhanced factory productivity and operation excellence through advanced robotics and human-robot collaboration.
Architecture
Digital twins of factories are built and simulated in NVIDIA Omniverse. Simulation and live performance data are ingested into Microsoft Fabric for analytics. Factory operations are enhanced using generative AI-powered agents. Staff use natural language interfaces for simulation, dashboarding, and production insights, interacting with real factory and robotic fleet data. Integration covers AMRs, cobots (EMMA), and humanoid robots (Digit, Phoenix).
Sources & evidence1
The case's original source is still reachable.
- Cited source last checked Jun 12, 2026 — ok (0/1 broken).
Measures whether this deployment's public evidence persists — not whether the system is still in production.
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