Schaeffler wants its factories to be able to reuse robotic skills rather than engineer the same automation process separately at every site. The German industrial group has signed a technology partnership with Dresden-based Wandelbots to develop its NOVA software platform into a common foundation for robot programming, simulation and deployment across Schaeffler’s global manufacturing network.
Announced on October 22, the agreement builds on work the companies have been doing together for more than a year. Wandelbots demonstrated a simulation-to-production workflow with Schaeffler and NVIDIA in June 2025. The new commitment is to make that approach repeatable across plants, including facilities operating different kinds of robots.
Under the arrangement, Schaeffler intends to establish Wandelbots NOVA as a standard platform for developing and validating industrial robotics applications. Engineers would be able to test processes in virtual environments using NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim, then transfer approved applications to physical production equipment. A planned skills library would store software applications, models and technical knowledge so that work completed at one plant could be adapted for another.
The platform is designed to support conventional industrial robots as well as emerging humanoid systems. That distinction matters for Schaeffler, which is investing in humanoid components and factory deployments while continuing to operate a much larger base of established industrial automation equipment. Its aim is to connect those systems through common software instead of requiring separate development workflows for each machine.
Schaeffler and Wandelbots say the approach could lower automation lifecycle costs by as much as 40%, although the announcement does not provide independently verified results across Schaeffler’s global network. The companies also have not specified a plant-by-plant deployment schedule or the commercial terms of the agreement.
For now, NOVA is an existing software platform, not a newly launched foundation model. The development announced this week is Schaeffler’s decision to pursue a company-wide standard and extend the partners’ earlier technical work into a broader manufacturing program.
