Into the Omniverse: SoftServe and Continental Drive Digitalization With OpenUSD and Generative AI

Leading German automotive technology company enhances manufacturing workflows with OpenUSD-powered virtual factory solutions.
by James McKenna

Editor’s note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how artists, developers and enterprises can transform their workflows using the latest advances in OpenUSD and NVIDIA Omniverse.

Industrial digitalization is driving automotive innovation.

In response to the industry’s growing demand for seamless, connected driving experiences, SoftServe, a leading IT consulting and digital services provider, worked with Continental, a leading German automotive technology company, to develop Industrial Co-Pilot, a virtual agent powered by generative AI that enables engineers to streamline maintenance workflows.

SoftServe helps manufacturers like Continental to further optimize their operations by integrating the Universal Scene Description, or OpenUSD, framework into virtual factory solutions — such as Industrial Co-Pilot — developed on the NVIDIA Omniverse platform.

OpenUSD offers the flexibility and extensibility organizations need to harness the full potential of digital transformation, streamlining operations and driving efficiency. Omniverse is a platform of application programming interfaces, software development kits and services that enable developers to easily integrate OpenUSD and NVIDIA RTX rendering technologies into existing software tools and simulation workflows.

Realizing the Benefits of OpenUSD

SoftServe and Continental’s Industrial Co-Pilot brings together generative AI and immersive 3D visualization to help factory teams increase productivity during equipment and production line maintenance. With the copilot, engineers can oversee production lines and monitor the performance of individual stations or the shop floor.

They can also interact with the copilot to conduct root cause analysis and receive step-by-step work instructions and recommendations, leading to reduced documentation processes and improved maintenance procedures. It’s expected that these advancements will contribute to increased productivity and a10% reduction in maintenance effort and downtime.

In a recent Omniverse community livestream, Benjamin Huber, who leads advanced automation and digitalization in the user experience business area at Continental, highlighted the significance of the company’s collaboration with SoftServe and its adoption of Omniverse.

The Omniverse platform equips Continental and SoftServe developers with the tools needed to build a new era of AI-enabled industrial applications and services. And by breaking down data silos and fostering multi-platform cooperation with OpenUSD, SoftServe and Continental developers enable engineers to work seamlessly across disciplines and systems, driving efficiency and innovation throughout their processes.

“Any engineer, no matter what tool they’re working with, can transform their data into OpenUSD and then interchange data from one discipline to another, and from one tool to another,” said Huber.

This sentiment was echoed by Vasyl Boliuk, senior lead and test automation engineer at SoftServe, who shared how OpenUSD and Omniverse — along with other NVIDIA technologies like NVIDIA Riva, NVIDIA NeMo and NVIDIA NIM microservices — enabled SoftServe and Continental teams to develop custom large language models and connect them to new 3D workflows.

“OpenUSD allows us to add any attribute or any piece of metadata we want to our applications,” he said.

Boliuk, Huber and other SoftServe and Continental representatives joined the livestream to share more about the potential unlocked from these OpenUSD-powered solutions. Watch the replay:

By embracing cutting-edge technologies and fostering collaboration, SoftServe and Continental are helping reshape automotive manufacturing.

Get Plugged Into the World of OpenUSD

Watch SoftServe and Continental’s on-demand NVIDIA GTC talks to learn more about their virtual factory solutions and experience developing on NVIDIA Omniverse with OpenUSD:

Learn about the latest technologies driving the next industrial revolution by watching NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang’s COMPUTEX keynote on Sunday, June 2, at 7 p.m. Taiwan time.

Check out a new video series about how OpenUSD can improve 3D workflows. For more resources on OpenUSD, explore the Alliance for OpenUSD forum and visit the AOUSD website.

Get started with NVIDIA Omniverse by downloading the standard license free, access OpenUSD resources and learn how Omniverse Enterprise can connect teams. Follow Omniverse on Instagram, Medium and X. For more, join the Omniverse community on the forums, Discord server, Twitch and YouTube channels. 

Featured image courtesy of SoftServe.