Belden Inc. and Accenture partnered to help develop and deploy physical AI systems for worker safety in factories and warehouses. The systems demonstrate how time-sensitive network infrastructure enables advanced AI applications that enhance worker safety, improve quality control and modernize existing factory operations as modern manufacturing increasingly integrates autonomous systems alongside human operators.
"The physical AI safety systems we are building represent our evolution from connectivity products to comprehensive industrial solutions," says German Fernandez, VP of ecosystem partner programs at Belden. "By providing the full stack of technology from sensor to edge, we're enabling manufacturers to implement advanced AI safety systems using existing factory infrastructure."
"The physical AI systems we help Belden build on Accenture’s Physical AI Orchestrator platform, address the critical need to protect workers while maintaining the operational flexibility that modern manufacturing demands," says Ramalingam Hariharan, managing director at Accenture.
Key takeaways:
· Belden’s virtual safety fence solution was developed with Accenture’s Physical AI Orchestrator, which uses NVIDIA Omniverse, NVIDIA Metropolis libraries for digital twins and agentic AI from Accenture. It applies computer vision and closed-loop control to monitor worker movements and automatically pause robotic operations when humans enter hazardous zones.
· The technical breakthrough centers on Belden's Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) capabilities, which enable microsecond-precise synchronization of video streams from multiple cameras across factory floors. This synchronization is essential for accurate tracking of people and equipment movement in real-time safety applications.
· Belden provides industrial networking infrastructure and protocol integration with embedded security; NVIDIA provides simulation, agentic AI and accelerated computing platforms; and Accenture brings expertise and capabilities in physical AI, manufacturing automation, systems integration, industry and reference architectures.
