(MENAFN- Asia Times) NEC has concluded a Technology Partner Program Agreement with Siemens Industry Software to develop an automated AI-based robot teaching method. The partnership combines NEC Robot Task Planning digital twin software with Siemens' Process Simulate software for 3D robot simulations.

This combination of Japanese and German manufacturing expertise brings a new dynamic to what has been seen primarily as a battle between Chinese and American approaches to applied AI.

The goals of the tie-up are to help manufacturing customers optimize factory operations, improve productivity and facilitate the transition to data-driven industrial robot control, and strengthen the Japanese-German position in global manufacturing. Unlike their Chinese and American competitors, NEC and Siemens are not effectively excluded from one of the world's two largest economies.

“Traditionally,” Siemens explains,“planning the motion of multiple robots was done manually by skilled engineers using a process known as teaching. This process is extremely complex, and in manufacturing sites, designing the motion plan for robots to produce a single product requires substantial cost. As a result, there are many delays in launching production lines that use multiple robots.”

In contrast, the new NEC and Siemens solution uses AI to quickly and automatically generate optimal motion plans based on data.“NEC Robot Task Planning has been seamlessly integrated into the Process Simulate user interface, allowing users to execute robot motion plan creation with a single click. This... shortens the production line setup period, optimizes cycle time, enables fact-driven management, and facilitates the sharing and transfer of operational know-how that is often dependent on individual expertise.”

Process Simulate is part of Siemens' Tecnomatix portfolio, which enables companies to build digital twins to model, simulate and optimize their manufacturing processes – including robotics, other automation, materials handling systems and factory workers – to more rapidly evaluate and implement those processes during the entire product development cycle, from concept, engineering and commissioning to production and ongoing improvements. It is already used by Siemens' customers in markets around the world.

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NEC's Robot Task Planning software is delivered as part of the company's BluStellar initiative. It uses a proprietary algorithm to optimize the coordinated operation of multiple robots. BluStellar is a multi-domain digital solutions platform that employs agentic AI to increase efficiency in manufacturing, telecom, aviation, traffic management, retail, finance, public safety, healthcare, and other fields.

Along with Aerospace & Defense, BluStellar is one of NEC's fastest-growing and most profitable divisions, expanding its business at an annual rate of 20% and accounting for 18% of sales and 30% of operating profit in the six months to September.

It exemplifies the transformation and recovery of Japan's largest communications and computing company, which once led the world in semiconductors and telecommunications equipment but is now known for its satellites, facial recognition technology, enterprise software and social infrastructure management solutions.

Siemens is Germany's and Europe's largest engineering company. Digital Industries

(automation solutions and industrial software), Smart Infrastructure (energy grid and building automation, control and security systems) and Mobility (rail infrastructure, rolling and road traffic systems) account for about two-thirds of its business.

Like NEC, it is applying AI to a wide range of practical applications in industry and infrastructure with which it is already familiar.

NEC and Siemens plan to use various marketing initiatives, including joint seminars and exhibitions and their own sales channels, to accelerate the deployment of their combined industrial robot teaching solution in global markets. This should help them compete with similar services offered by leading robot makers, Nvidia, other Western companies and the Chinese.

Among the leading industrial robot makers, ABB's RobotStudio supplies simulation and programming solutions to a long list of industries, services and automation applications, while Fanuc, Yaskawa and Kuka have their own simulation, configuration and programming software. Kuka is owned by China's Midea Group. Softbank has reached an agreement to buy ABB's robotics business in a deal that is expected to close in mid-to-late 2026.

Nvida Isaac Sim enables developers to simulate, train, test and validate AI-driven robotics solutions in physics-based digital representations of the real world. According to the company,“Nvidia's three-computer solution enables robots to see, learn, perceive their surroundings, and make decisions in real time. This is driven by advances in AI, accelerated computing, robotic foundation models, physically accurate simulation, and a strong ecosystem of robotics partners.”

Nvidia is building its own list of industrial and infrastructure-related robotic solutions and partners in industry. Rockwell Automation, Fanuc, Yaskawa, ABB and Kuka all collaborate with Nvidia.

RoboDK of Canada provides simulation, programming and calibration services in support of more than 500 industrial robot arms from ABB, Universal Robots, Fanuc, Kuka and other robot makers. Coppelia Robotics of Switzerland offers factory automation simulations, fast prototyping and verification, remote monitoring, safety double-checking and other services.

There are also open-source robot simulators such as Gazebo in the US and Webots, which was developed by Cyberbotics of Switzerland.

All this poses a formidable challenge to China, which has the world's largest industrial economy equipped with the greatest number of industrial robots, but relies on Japanese and European robots in auto manufacturing and other high-end applications.

To defend its competitiveness in export markets and reduce dependence on imported technology that might become vulnerable to sanctions, it must continue to invest heavily in AI-based robotic teaching. Because it is a national priority, China will almost certainly do this.

In addition to Kuka, which was acquired from Germany, China has its own makers of industrial robots, other factory automation equipment and components. These include Siasun Industrial Robots, Estun Automation, EFORT Intelligent Robot and Inovance Technology, all of which are working their way up the value chain and expanding their presence in both the Chinese and overseas markets.

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Chinese industrial robot makers' share of their own market is now approaching 40%, with sales concentrated in low-end and mid-range applications such as palletizing, picking and welding, but also including more sophisticated models and key components such as servo motors and controllers.

The Huawei Cloud Pangu Model Robot Suite, developed with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is China's response to Nvidia in the area of AI-based robot teaching.

China also has several venture companies using 3D cameras, machine learning and AI to teach robots. These include AgiBot, EngineAI, Mech-Mind Robotics and Agile Robots. Mech-Mind and Agile Robots have a strong connection with Germany.

Mech-Mind was founded by CEO Tianlan Shao, a graduate of the School of Software, Tsinghua University, who earned his Master's degree at the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

He is advised by Jianwei Zhang, an academician at the National Academy of Engineering Sciences in Germany and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Tsinghua University.

Agile Robots is a German-Chinese company with headquarters in Munich and Beijing. After studying engineering in China, CEO Zhaopeng Chen completed his doctorate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he became deputy director of the Modular Dexterous Robotics Laboratory and worked with his co-founder Peter Meusel.

DeepSeek calls the NEC-Siemens collaboration“a wake-up call” for Chinese industry, but Chinese industry is already wide awake. Looked at the other way round, it shows that the Japanese and Germans have woken up to the need to add AI-based simulation and robot teaching software to their traditional expertise in precision manufacturing.

It should also be a wake-up call for the Americans, who have allowed much of their industrial infrastructure to atrophy.

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