Page 45 - Plastics News January 2026
P. 45
BUSINESS NEWS
need to align closely with customer expecta- facturers can position themselves as preferred
tions through transparency, quality control and suppliers, command higher prices and foster the
timely delivery. ERP systems can support these trust and loyalty that creates long-term custom-
initiatives by automating critical factory opera- ers.
tions and streamlining business processes. By Source – Plastics Business
harnessing these capabilities, plastics manu-
FANUC PARTNERS NVIDIA TO BRING PHYSICAL AI
INTO MAINSTREAM MANUFACTURING
fore committing to physical robot investment.
NVIDIA’s simulation and physics-aware AI
frameworks provide virtual environments that
closely mirror real-world behaviour. This en-
sures safer, more efficient and accurate rollout
of factory automation.
Traditional factory automation typically relies
on robots pre-programmed for rigid, repetitive
tasks, with production line changes usually re-
quiring manual reprogramming, resulting in in-
creased downtime. This collaboration aims to
ANUC partners with NVIDIA, bringing eliminate that by embedding AI, perception, and
physical AI into mainstream manufactur-
Fing. The move is set to shape the next real-time reasoning robots that can interpret
voice commands, respond to the environment,
generation of smart factories, with the agree- and work alongside human operators.
ment seeing FANUC robots integrated into
NVIDIA’s advanced AI computing stack, includ- In terms of the UK manufacturing sector, sup-
ing on-robot systems like NVIDIA Jetson and ply chains and production demands, factories
simulation platforms such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim. need to be flexible. AI-enabled robots will al-
Additionally, FANUC has released support for low existing lines to be retrofitted without ma-
the open-source robotics platform ROS 2, al- jor overhauls, as well as switch quickly between
lowing programming via Python. This lowers the different product variants. Using open platforms
barrier for developers, researchers, and compa- like ROS 2 and Python could stimulate a wave of
nies to build AI-driven robotics applications on innovation, allowing users to build or customise
top of the company’s industrial hardware. AI-augmented robotics solutions and leverage
their own software expertise.
The partnership will also see the creation of
high-fidelity digital twins, where simulation can Source - https://interplasinsights.com/
conduct training, testing, and optimisation be-
January 2026 PLASTICS NEWS 45
