Schaeffler and Wandelbots join forces to develop AI-based industrial and humanoid robots

Schaeffler has entered into a technology partnership with the German robotics and physical AI company Wandelbots. The cooperation will focus on developing the Wandelbots NOVA open platform to enable use of artificial intelligence in industrial and humanoid robotics.

In the future, the solution should be available to all Schaeffler plants worldwide to facilitate development, testing, and cross-location transfer of robotics applications. In addition, the platform will help reduce the life cycle costs of automation solutions by up to 40 percent – both in new and in existing manufacturing environments. With this, the partners will create the conditions for scalable use of physical AI and further digitalization of Schaeffler’s global manufacturing network.

Dr. Jochen Schröder, Chief Operating Officer of Schaeffler AG, says: “If you want to shape the manufacturing of the future, you have to rethink automation. Flexibility and scalability are key to succeeding in today’s competitive global marketplace. With Wandelbots, we will take state-of-the-art physical AI straight from theory to industrial practice. This will solidify Schaeffler’s position as a technology pioneer and take the digitalization of Schaeffler’s manufacturing network to the next level.”

Christian Piechnick, CEO and co-founder of Wandelbots, says: “Physical AI has great potential to significantly reduce manufacturing costs while dramatically increasing the flexibility of robots. Over the last 12 months, we have sufficiently demonstrated the technical feasibility. Now we have to ensure that skills can be developed efficiently, transferred to different systems, and deployed reliably in actual manufacturing settings. Our cooperation with Schaeffler combines an open technology platform with comprehensive industrial application expertise. Together, we will show how applications can be moved from development to practice more quickly and scaled across various manufacturing environments.”

Schaeffler and Wandelbots aim to establish the Wandelbots NOVA platform as a standard at Schaeffler within the scope of the technology partnership. NOVA should support Schaeffler in designing applications, digitally testing them, and deploying them in various plants. The platform will connect different robot systems and make it possible to transfer tested solutions to other applications and locations. NVIDIA’s Omniverse and Isaac Sim technologies will be used for virtual testing. Manufacturing processes and robot tasks will be able to be digitally simulated, validated, and optimized before being used in real-world manufacturing environments. This will facilitate standardization and support efficient rollout within Schaeffler’s global manufacturing network. A skill store will bundle applications, models, and technical knowledge.