Rockwell’s Emulate3D Factory Test at GTC 2025 Highlights that the Vendor Needs to Focus Narrative on How it is Supporting Holistic Digital Transformation Journeys

Announced at NVIDIA GTC 2025, followed by an official launched at Hannover Messe 2025, Rockwell Automation demonstrated the capabilities of Emulate3D Factory Test, a digital twin software solution for virtual automation control testing and validation. Emulate3D Factory Test represents action on the Rockwell Automation collaboration with NVIDIA to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) and physics-based simulation to industrial automation, which was announced in November of 2024. Emulate3D Factory Test has been integrated with NVIDIA Omniverse (Three-Dimensional (3D) application development platform) and OpenUSD (open-sourced 3D description framework on which NVIDIA Omniverse is built) to support the visualization element of the digital twin, allowing manufacturers to create high-fidelity simulations of an entire factory. The modular multi-modeling approach of the digital twin allows for the combination of mechanical, electrical, controls, process, robotics, and device behavior models to create a unified simulation and visualization of a factory floor’s automation processes. The construction of the digital twin has also been streamlined through the use of modern DevOps workflows, with transparent version control and tracking of changes enabling easy collaboration across development teams.

Digital twin tools such as Emulate3D Factory Test provide a range of valuable benefits to manufacturers. Automation engineers can use these virtual environments to simulate a range of automation conditions, allowing for the optimization of system performance. The new tool from Rockwell Automation allows customers to take this a step further, as simulation and testing can be done in the context of the entire factory, rather than a singular line. Alongside this optimization, the use of digital twin tools can notably reduce commissioning times for manufacturers. Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) can be done in a virtual setting, enabling system validation prior to deployment and minimizing installation issues that could cause delays and increased costs. Once again, the factory-wide capability of Emulate3D Factory Test brings value, with manufacturers able to create a more complete picture of operations and automation processes, increasing the reliability of deployments.

Creating effective training environments is also a factor that is becoming essential for manufacturers, as they increasingly face challenges in attracting and retaining skilled automation engineers. The issue of worker skills and attraction is highlighted prominently in ABI Research’s recent Industrial & Manufacturing Survey (PT-3319) where respondents ranked recruiting qualified staff as the third biggest operational and business challenge out of 19 other options, following the improvement of quality levels and the performance of equipment & machines. Emulate3D Factory Test enables automation engineers to simulate and test automation logic in a virtual environment, not only reducing the risk of faulty logic making its way to the factory floor, but also providing a valuable training environment for new engineers to come to grips with projects.

Emulate3D Factory Test is an effective and impactful solution for manufacturers looking to enhance automation processes. However, as the industrial automation market rapidly evolves through the growth of software-defined automation, this tool alone will be unlikely to provide Rockwell Automation with solid grounding as a technology leader. Leveraging NVIDIA Omniverse technology, while highly valuable, is less of a differentiator for Rockwell Automation than is ideal, as other leading industrial automation vendors have also partnered with the AI giant, such as Omron and Siemens, integrating Sysmac Studio and Xcelerator with NVIDIA Omniverse to develop similar solutions that allow for digital twin construction. Omron’s new solution was even demonstrated at NVIDIA GTC 2025 alongside the new offering from Rockwell Automation, highlighting the challenge of making a NVIDIA partnership stand out.

Emulate3D Factory Test is a strong point solution, but Rockwell Automation needs to focus on how the offer supports the transformation of the company’s industrial automation portfolio into a next-gen lineup to drive software-defined automation and not see the offering as an exemplary technology innovation. Despite being one of the larger players in the industrial automation space, the company has somewhat lagged behind its competitors such as Bosch Rexroth, Schneider Electric, and Siemens in developing its software-defined automation narrative.

The market narrative around holistic transformation journeys and how portfolios work together to transition manufacturers toward true Industry 4.0 is being shown to be more impactful than differentiation by technology partnership or point solution innovation. Rockwell Automation should stress the former as much as possible in its coverage of Emulate3D Factory Test. An excellent example of this in practice is Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) and copilot technology, as the technology and its functionality itself are not overly differentiated in the marketplace now. What really matters is how it fundamentally changes the way in which a customer interacts with a vendor’s ecosystem of products and how it weaves throughout them to contribute to constructing a complete digital thread.