We are in mid-trend: Physical AI.
Physical AI, in early 2026, mostly means AI as it applies to making a robot or some other device move about in the physical world. All robotics companies are pursuing software solutions in this area, and many, like ABB Robotics (Auburn Hills, MI) are going outside, rather than reinvent the universe.
Recently ABB announced a deal with NVIDIA in which it will integrate NVIDIA’s Omniverse libraries into the ABB RobotStudio software to help ABB customers deploy physical AI in real-world robotics applications.
The whole purpose of the deal is to close the “sim-to-real” gap in development vs. everyday use. Let’s say you are working on processes that involve a robot. You can simulate everything before creating a system for deployment. In this specific case with ABB, you can simulate robots in digital twins and generate synthetic data to train your physical AI models. (For a bit more on synthetic data, see my article from September 2024, “Let’s get real about synthetic data” at https://fifthwavemfg.com/lets-get-real-about-synthetic-data/.)
The basic premise is this: simulations are necessary to save time and cost in doing a deployment. Up to now, simulations haven’t been close to the real world; they have come up short in terms of accuracy and in simulating properties, say, of a surface. The surface might have some manner of reflectivity that changes with the angle of incidence. Or perhaps the lighting required for the task increases or decreases the surface reflectivity. There are endless examples.
NVIDIA’s Omniverse libraries address these shortcomings. The ABB robots now are digital twins, the look and act exactly as they do in the real world. That goes for learning, too; the data is collected and deployed in the real robots.
As deployed in the ABB software, the Omniverse-enriched package is called RobotStudio HyperReality. The physically accurate simulations and foundation models are continuously optimized with real-world data feedback. The system continues to improve. These models can train any number of ABB robots—anywhere in the world.
ABB sources say that the RobotStudio HyperReality will provide up to 99 percent accuracy between sim and real. Currently ABB is the only robot manufacturer with a virtual controller running the same firmware as the hardware, helping to make the sim-to-real match a reality. The HyperReality accuracy maps well over the ABB’s existing Absolute Accuracy technology, which shrinks positioning errors from 8-15 mm to around 0.5 mm. Manufacturers can design, test, and optimize production lines virtually. According to ABB, the pre-deployment time saving is up to 80 percent, and cost saving up to 40 percent by eliminating physical prototypes and accelerating time to market.
A large pilot program is going on right now at Foxconn, the manufacturers of iPhones, Nokia and other phones, Kindles, TVs, Sony PlayStations, all manner of complex electronics. Meanwhile, the product is designed to serve industrial clients at any scale, across industries and applications.
The full release of the product to ABB’s 60,000 worldwide RobotStudio customers will happen in the second half of 2026.
More information: https://www.abb.com/global/en/news/134178