Schaeffler builds its plant-wide physical-AI platform on Wandelbots NOVA, targets 40% lower automation cost

Wandelbots said in a press release on Oct 22, presented at NVIDIA GTC in Berlin, that Schaeffler has signed a technology partnership to build its own physical-AI platform on the Wandelbots NOVA software, which will be made available to every Schaeffler plant worldwide.

NOVA separates application logic from the robot hardware, so the same skills can run on industrial arms, mobile systems and humanoids; processes are first simulated and validated in NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim and then sent to the shop floor through the same software layer, and Schaeffler plans a shared library of reusable robot skills across sites.

The partners aim to cut the lifecycle cost of automation solutions by up to 40% in new and existing lines; in earlier joint work a robot-assisted packaging cell needed about two weeks less development time per application.

No contract value, plant count or timetable was given. MEKAWIRE context: two days earlier Schaeffler showed six humanoids assembling actuators at its Taicang lighthouse plant ([story](/news/schaeffler-taicang-lighthouse-factory-six-humanoids-assemble-actuators-humanoid-orders-400m-euros-20261020)), and on Oct 12 Wandelbots added Techman Robot arms to NOVA ([story](/news/wandelbots-nova-adds-support-for-techman-robot-20261012)); company pages: [Schaeffler](/companies/schaeffler), [Wandelbots](/companies/wandelbots).