At Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory in Dresden, a new era of smart manufacturing is taking shape—powered by AI-driven robotics, digital twins, and synthetic data. This three-way collaboration between Techman Robot, Gessmann, and NVIDIA demonstrates how next-generation automation can move from simulation to production with speed, precision, and intelligence.
As manufacturers face growing demand for flexibility, speed, and cost-efficiency, digital transformation is no longer optional—it’s essential. In response, Techman Robot, a global leader in AI-powered collaborative robot, has partnered with German automation integrator Gessmann—which also develops its own autonomous mobile robot (AMR)—and technology innovator NVIDIA to bring advanced automation to life inside Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory in Dresden.
Early Planning with Digital Twins
Using NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim, engineers created high-fidelity digital twins of Techman Robot’s AI collaborative arm (TM AI cobot) mounted on the GESSbot autonomous mobile robot. In the early planning phase, the team simulated workspace reach, robot motion, and cycle time—allowing for accurate cost quoting and layout proposals before any hardware was installed. This significantly shortened planning cycles and reduced downstream integration risks.
Rapid Deployment with TMflow + Digital Robot
Once the concept was validated in simulation, Techman Robot used its proprietary TMflow software to seamlessly bridge the gap from virtual planning to real-world deployment. A 1:1 digital replica of the robot system was built, requiring only minor adjustments before being commissioned on the factory floor.
TMflow supports both virtual and physical robot programming, enabling engineers to reduce commissioning time and switch smoothly between development, testing, and deployment—delivering true Sim-to-Real execution.
AI-Ready with Synthetic Data & Foundation Models
To optimize AI model development, Techman Robot used Omniverse to generate realistic virtual factory environments—simulating lighting, materials, and object interactions. These synthetic scenes serve as effective training data to enhance AI vision performance, reducing reliance on large volumes of real-world images.
Looking ahead, Techman Robot plans to explore NVIDIA’s Cosmos World Foundation Model, a large-scale vision AI trained on over 20 million hours of video, to further improve model generalization and scene understanding. This would enable even more scalable and adaptive deployment of AI in complex production environments.
Real-World Impact at Volkswagen
The result of this collaboration is a high-performing automation solution now operating within Volkswagen’s production environment. The GESSbot AMR, equipped with TM AI cobot and NVIDIA-accelerated AI models, autonomously navigates the floor, identifies components, and performs flexible pick-and-place tasks with an intelligent gripper exchange system.
Key outcomes include:
✔ 30% reduction in operating costs
✔ 20% improvement in overall production efficiency
✔ 70% reduction in robot programming time
Combined with a three-stage protective field system and digital reconfiguration capabilities, the solution is not only efficient but also scalable and future-ready.
Conclusion
This cross-industry collaboration is a blueprint for the next generation of smart manufacturing—merging robotics, AI, and digital simulation. By leveraging NVIDIA’s simulation platforms and Techman Robot’s AI cobot expertise, Volkswagen is accelerating its Industry 4.0 transformation with automation that is faster to deploy, easier to scale, and smarter at its core.
Together, NVIDIA, Techman Robot, and Volkswagen are establishing a new standard for data-driven, AI-enhanced industrial transformation.