At Hannover Messe 2024, Siemens presented their first generative artificial intelligence (AI) product for engineering in an industrial environment. The Siemens Industrial Copilot, the generative AI-powered assistant, is now seamlessly connected to the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal. This will enable engineering teams to find the right help topic and to generate a basic visualization and code faster for programmable logic controllers (PLC). The Siemens Industrial Copilot for TIA Portal Engineering will be available for download from the Siemens Xcelerator marketplace starting in summer 2024.
From theory to scale
At Hannover Messe 2023, Siemens and Microsoft jointly unveiled their vision for a generative AI-powered assistant: The Siemens Industrial Copilot, that includes automation and process simulation information from Siemens’ digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator. It has been enriched with the large language models in Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, for example to augment the creation and optimization of code in software for factory automation. At the Smart Production Solutions (SPS) trade show in the fall of 2023 and in collaboration with Schaeffler AG, Siemens presented a generative AI-enhanced production machine for the first time. Siemens is now moving from theory to scale with its first generative AI-powered product for engineering.
The Siemens Industrial Copilot will enable industrial customers of all sizes to harness the power of industrial-grade generative AI to transform their operations. Industrial automation solution provider Grenzebach Group, a family-owned business and an early adopter of the Siemens Industrial Copilot, is testing how generative AI can augment industrial automation engineering and support engineers to reduce time, effort and probability of errors.
Dr. Steven Althaus, CEO Grenzebach Group, says: “Generative AI is a must have. At Grenzebach, we’re committed to harnessing its power to stay ahead of the game. The Siemens Industrial Copilot will allow us to make the most of the rapidly increasing amount of data available in a factory. And it will take human-machine collaboration to the next level. With Siemens, we can address the skilled labour shortages, boost innovation, and significantly increase the productivity of our workforce.”
Huge benefits for engineering
Features of the new Siemens Industrial Copilot for TIA Portal Engineering include automated code generation in structured control language (SCL): The TIA Portal can take the code suggestion directly from the AI, eliminating the need to copy and paste. It’s also possible for the Siemens Industrial Copilot to explain SCL code blocks or to guide and easily create an initial machine or plant visualization in WinCC Unified. In addition, engineering teams can search Siemens manuals in natural language. Customers will have the option to access their private instance of Azure OpenAI Service which doesn’t use customer data to retrain models.
