ABB and Nvidia Forge Strategic Partnership to Revolutionize Industrial Robot Training via High-Fidelity Virtual Simulations

ABB Robotics partners with Nvidia to use Omniverse for realistic industrial robot simulations, aiming to cut costs and bridge the simulation-to-reality gap.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 9, 2026, 8:23 AM EDT

Source: The information in this article was sourced from Channel News Asia

Bridging the Virtual and Physical Divide

In a move set to accelerate the adoption of advanced automation, ABB’s robotics division announced a major partnership with Nvidia on Monday. The collaboration is designed to solve one of the most persistent challenges in industrial engineering: the "simulation-to-reality" gap. By ensuring that robots behave in the real world exactly as they do in digital environments, the two companies aim to streamline the transition from laboratory testing to high-speed factory production.

Leveraging Nvidia Omniverse for Hyper-Realism

Central to this partnership is the integration of Nvidia’s Omniverse—a suite of libraries and tools designed for building and operating industrial metaverse applications. ABB will utilize these tools to create training environments that are significantly more realistic than traditional simulations. This includes the precise rendering of environmental factors such as complex lighting, accurate shadows, and material textures. According to the technical briefing, these details are crucial for training AI-driven robots that rely on computer vision to navigate and interact with their surroundings.

Economic Impacts on Manufacturing Efficiency

The primary benefit of this high-fidelity simulation is the reduction of downtime and physical testing costs. Historically, fine-tuning a robot on a live factory floor could take weeks of trial and error. Marc Segura, President of ABB Robotics, emphasized the financial advantages of the move, stating that the ability to perfect robotic movements in a digital twin before a single machine is turned on will "save companies a lot of time and money."