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At this week’s Hanover Fair, Siemens and Audi shared updates on their long-standing collaboration, which in recent years has centered on integrating virtual and hardware controllers, improving safety functions, and optimizing production workflows. Audi has recently adopted AI-powered automation for optical inspection, using a custom-trained AI algorithm and high-resolution imagery to detect and remove weld spatter from vehicle bodies—an approach that, according to Audi, has improved car body quality and enhanced manufacturing efficiency.
To accelerate the shift from automated to highly flexible production, Audi has integrated its IT and OT systems by progressively virtualizing its shop floor. Last year, it deployed Siemens’ Simatic S7-1500V virtualized controller on a car body assembly line at one of its plants in Germany. These virtual PLCs are embedded within Audi’s cloud infrastructure platform, “Edge Cloud 4 Production,” and the company intends to expand their use to another plant’s body shop later this year.
Available through Siemens Industrial Edge, the Simatic S7-1500V can be seamlessly integrated into existing IT infrastructure. This enables Audi to centrally manage its virtual PLCs and adjust them flexibly to meet specific production requirements.
Siemens recently achieved a new milestone with TÜV safety certification for its Simatic S7-1500V F, which it describes as the first fail-safe virtual PLC available on the market. Traditionally, fail-safe functionality has relied on dedicated hardware, but Siemens has now integrated these safety mechanisms into an industrial edge environment. This advancement enables users to move safety-critical applications to software-defined automation systems.
Siemens is also providing Audi with the infrastructure needed to deploy and manage an AI-driven system for real-time quality control in car body construction, supporting Audi’s shift toward AI-enabled production. Using the Siemens Industrial AI Suite and the Simatic industrial PC BX-59A as an edge device, the system enables complex AI-based inspections to meet the demands of automated weld spatter removal. As a result, Audi reports notable improvements in production rates and workplace safety.