This initiative aims to promote the development of a collaborative sovereign control platform capable of connecting the digital and physical worlds through the integration of NVIDIA's open physical AI technologies.
By accelerating the implementation of physical AI in various industrial sectors, including manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare, Fujitsu seeks to create a society where people and robots coexist and collaborate naturally, while strengthening Japan's industrial competitiveness.
Background
In recent years, numerous industrial sectors, especially manufacturing, have faced significant challenges stemming from labor shortages caused by Japan's aging population and low birth rate, the reduction in the number of highly skilled professionals, and increased global competition.
To overcome these challenges and ensure sustainable growth, accelerating digital transformation (DX) is essential. In this context, physical AI is generating increasing interest by enabling artificial intelligence to interpret and analyze real-world information and translate it into autonomous physical actions.
Physical AI allows for the automation of tasks, increased productivity, consistent quality assurance, and the creation of new services because robots and other equipment can assess their environment, make autonomous decisions, and execute the most appropriate actions.
However, achieving this goal requires advanced robotic control technologies, an AI infrastructure capable of leveraging high-quality data from the operational environment, and a collaborative platform that integrates all these elements to effectively connect the physical and digital worlds. Developing and widely adopting these capabilities is beyond the reach of any single company.
In response to this situation, Fujitsu, as a technology company, will promote the implementation of physical AI in society through its collaboration with FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, while working to standardize and open this collaborative control platform to the entire industry.
Main initiatives
1. Implementation of solutions based on physical AI
The first initiatives will focus on the application of physical AI in different industrial sectors, with plans to later expand its scope to other areas.
Solutions for factories
By optimizing comprehensive production planning—taking into account both factors affecting manufacturing variations and actual plant conditions—and enabling autonomous adaptation of operations, Fujitsu will help the manufacturing industry achieve higher levels of productivity and flexibility.
Solutions for retail and logistics
The automation of goods handling and movement operations, based on logistics plans that incorporate real-time data on sales and inventory, will significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce dependence on labor, and move towards increasingly automated logistics.
Solutions for the healthcare sector
Based on optimized plans generated by hospital management systems, robots will be able to autonomously perform various tasks, automating the internal transport of medicines and clinical samples, as well as the reception and guidance of patients in hospitals.
2. Promotion of an open and standardized sovereign collaborative control infrastructure
Fujitsu will develop software platforms and hardware interfaces that serve as a common foundation for physical AI, leveraging the knowledge and cutting-edge technologies of each participating partner in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, control systems, simulation, and data analysis.
These capabilities will facilitate collaboration between different robots, machines, and industrial equipment, enabling the development of much more advanced autonomous control systems.
At the same time, as the use of robots increases and their integration with other equipment and systems grows, risks such as cyberattacks, service interruptions, operational failures, or leaks of confidential information will also increase.
To address these challenges, Fujitsu will develop a sovereign collaborative control infrastructure, which it will offer as an open platform to participating companies and research institutions, thereby promoting the adoption of physical AI across the industry.
Collaboration with NVIDIA
Through this initiative, Fujitsu will lead business discussions with participating companies and leverage the artificial intelligence, world models, simulation, and robotics technologies that underpin NVIDIA's physical AI platform. This will strengthen its sovereign collaborative control platform and accelerate the deployment of physical AI across various industrial sectors.
Fujitsu will use the NVIDIA Cosmos global foundational model in its sociophysical simulations to enhance its ability to understand and predict events in real-world environments. This will accelerate the development and practical deployment of physical AI solutions in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
Fujitsu will leverage technologies like NVIDIA Omniverse, the open NVIDIA Isaac platform, and the Newton physics engine to streamline Sim2Real processes (transferring simulations to the real world), as well as robot learning, validation, and optimization.
Next steps
From the start of these conversations with the participating companies, Fujitsu will develop a roadmap for the development of specific technologies and the expansion of new business opportunities.
With the projected growth of the global robotics market, Fujitsu believes that establishing an artificial intelligence infrastructure that combines Japan's internationally recognized robotic control technology with high-quality operational data will be a decisive step for Japan to lead the global robotics market.
Through the implementation of physical AI, Fujitsu will contribute to the development of a safe and prosperous society where people and robots coexist and collaborate, while simultaneously strengthening Japan's industrial competitiveness.
Kenji Yamaguchi, Representative Director, President and CEO of FANUC CORPORATION, stated: " This collaboration represents a very important step in significantly accelerating the deployment of robotics-driven physical AI in real-world environments."
We have already begun to practically implement physical AI systems based on open platforms. Our main objective is to bring unprecedented, flexible, and accessible artificial intelligence systems to factories, for users of any experience level.
By combining Fujitsu's autonomous AI platform, which integrates the Takane language model and NVIDIA technologies, with FANUC robots, equipped with advanced AI capabilities and compatible with open platforms such as ROS 2 and Python, we aim to help solve critical challenges such as labor shortages.
Thanks to this collaboration and the use of AI technologies from NVIDIA, a strategic partner of both companies, we will work to build a society where people and robots collaborate naturally, strengthen industrial competitiveness, create new value and contribute to a more sustainable society.
Masahiro Ogawa, Vice Chairman and Executive Officer of Yaskawa Electric Corporation, stated:About ten years ago, we introduced the i³-Mechatronics concept, a proposal to drive a new revolution in industrial automation through the integration of mechatronics and the use of data.
Since then, technologies such as artificial intelligence and GPUs have evolved enormously, and data-driven automation continues to advance rapidly.
Our company launched MOTOMAN NEXT, an autonomous robot equipped as standard with an NVIDIA GPU. Furthermore, we continue to promote compatibility with ROS 2 and the use of robots as open platforms to accelerate the implementation of physical AI, as outlined in our medium-term strategic plan.
We are convinced that strengthening collaboration with different partners will be essential to expanding the scope of automation, and we are confident that this initiative will allow us to jointly accelerate the implementation of physical AI.
Yasuhiko Hashimoto, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, commented: " We have high expectations that this collaboration will generate significant synergies between our companies and accelerate the implementation of physical AI."
Currently, sectors such as healthcare and social care face significant challenges stemming from an aging population and a shortage of professionals. Developing new solutions supported by robotics and artificial intelligence is a priority.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries has robotic technologies widely implemented in multiple industries, in addition to extensive experience and a large volume of operational data accumulated over decades.
By combining these capabilities with Fujitsu's digital technologies and IT platforms, we can develop a comprehensive solution for hospitals that securely and efficiently connects all phases of the patient's care journey, from admission and consultation to treatment, surgery, and follow-up.
With this alliance, we not only aim to advance technological development, but also to create solutions that integrate effectively into clinical practice and contribute to improving the quality of healthcare. Together, we will bring new value to the healthcare and social care sectors worldwide.
According to Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA: “Physical AI represents the next industrial revolution, and it will be built in Japan. Fujitsu, FANUC, YASKAWA, and Kawasaki are the companies that taught the world how to manufacture. Together with NVIDIA’s comprehensive physical AI platform, they will teach the machines of the future to think, move, and work alongside people in factories, hospitals, and cities. Japan invented modern industry. With artificial intelligence, it will now define its next great stage.”
Takahito Tokita, Representative Director and CEO of Fujitsu Limited: We are pleased to begin exploring new business opportunities together with FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, leading companies in the global robotics industry.
By combining the robotic control technologies developed by these companies with Fujitsu's high-reliability digital and computing capabilities, we aspire to create a new social infrastructure in which people and robots collaborate in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.
Furthermore, leveraging NVIDIA's advanced physical AI technologies, we will develop a collaborative control platform that seamlessly connects enterprise applications with robotic control technologies and enables their deployment on a global scale.
This vertical integration between robots and business applications will increase the autonomy of robotic systems in decision-making and movement, driving significant productivity improvements across a wide variety of operating environments.
With the launch of this initiative, we will accelerate the implementation of physical AI, contributing to building a safer and more sustainable society, while strengthening industrial competitiveness.
