Kinetic Vision
Providing Breakthrough Immersive Simulation Experiences

Jim Topich, Senior Vice President

In this interview with CIO Applications, Jim Topich, Senior Vice President, and Shane Mooney, Group Manager, reveal the ‘secret sauce’ of how the company has grown to become a major technology provider to over 50 of the Fortune 500 companies.

How does Kinetic Vision leverage the concept of a Digital Twin?

Topich: Digital twins help our customers conceptualize, design, perfect, and visualize new products and processes. For example, we recently utilized a digital twin simulation to help optimize a new manufacturing line, resulting in significant time and cost savings for our customer. The traditional development method of utilizing physical prototypes requires an exact replica of the proposed system to be created and iteratively tested. This includes both the mechanical systems and the software to control it. Design iterations, which often include software, electrical, and mechanical component updates, can take several weeks or months to implement and retest. Conversely, these iterations in digital twin simulations take hours or days. After testing, optimizing, and debugging the system virtually, our customers can build the pilot system with confidence, knowing it will function as intended. With the rapid adoption of Industry 4.0, digital twin solutions are increasingly employed in the manufacturing sector. To drive this revolution, we rely on advanced computing power and software tools, in-the-loop model validation, data engineering, and machine learning models.

Could you walk me through Kinetic Vision’s capabilities?

Mooney: Kinetic Vision has eight interconnected core areas of expertise that mirror the product development process. Our Modeling + Simulation group services a broad range of customer simulation needs, including structural, dynamic, thermal, fluid flow, industrial mixing, plastic molding, electromagnetic radiation and more. Our digital twin capabilities enable us to model both micro and macro events, allowing individual operations to be studied and optimized as part of an overall system model. In addition, we see that machine learning is starting to influence all areas of manufacturing, and we also have the capability to develop and deploy those systems.

Topich: I very much agree with what Shane said about our multidisciplinary skills. It’s true we have a very strong simulation team at Kinetic Vision, but we’re not just a simulation company. We have extensive expertise in every functional area needed to create the smart product of today: innovation teams, industrial and mechanical design, mechanical and electrical engineering, embedded development, full prototyping services, desktop and mobile software development, sales and marketing media, and scan-based component inspection and quality control. In addition, we foresaw the rise of the “intelligent” connected products such as Amazon’s Alexa, and added a machine learning group over three years ago. Now most all the products and systems we develop have some sort of AI component, whether to add functionality, understand consumer behavior, monitor product performance, or measure product shipping and handling conditions.

Shane Mooney, Group Manager

Topich: We are not just a single technology company! For example, we take simulation to the next level by combining it with data engineering. We can also utilize simulations to create training data for machine learning systems. These kinds of capabilities allow our clients to streamline processes and efficiently develop and manufacture their products. Kinetic Vision consists of many teams with diverse skills, and we can create extremely innovative products in a very short amount of time. The products of today are mechanical, electrical, and intelligent, and their development takes four to five diverse expertise disciplines that very few companies have. We have all these skills under one roof – and that gives our clients a single point of contact and results in efficiencies that saves them considerable time and money. The teams at Kinetic Vision harmoniously collaborate to achieve this.

Mooney: I’d also like to mention that our long-term goal is to become your success partner, and not just a service vendor who emails a report back a week later and moves on. Sure, we can perform the specific simulations you request, but can also create and implement templates and automation that streamline those workflows within the entire company. That democratizes your simulation tools within the enterprise, which is much more valuable than performing a single study.

Topich: As an organization, we employ the most creative problem solvers in the industry and can come up with practical solutions for real-life industrial problems that many of our competitors struggle with. Our “secret sauce” is the blend of multidisciplinary skills we can bring to any project. We stay focused on the best technologies, software tools, and engineering approaches to solve our client’s toughest challenges. As Shane previously stated, our goal is to develop long-term partnerships that not only meet isolated needs, but also result in enterprise-wide solutions that streamline those processes throughout the company.

Where is Kinetic Vision headed, and how do you plan to get there?

Topich: We’ve advanced digital twin technology to replicate all aspects of a product or process, including human action and interaction. For example, we can accurately simulate complex systems such as robotic surgery suites, including the room environment and all hardware, software, and AI systems, including digital human avatars driven by concurrent motion capture. We call this a True Digital Twin. It’s a functional, navigable environment that looks and feels just like the real thing; just put on a VR headset and you’re transported there! Moreover, this isn’t just a tool for the R&D teams, it’s a platform that allows other key stakeholders such as the training, safety, and compliance teams to be involved throughout the development process. This fosters better communication and collaboration between the various functional teams, which “moves the needle” at an enterprise level.

In closing, the concept of Modeling and Simulation has changed throughout the years, and Kinetic Vision has always been at the forefront. We’ve seen it evolve from virtual testing of single components to digital development of complete systems, with real-time use and testing performed by digital humans in virtual environments. I’m really dating myself, but we’ve essentially created the Star Trek Holodeck - I encourage your younger readers to Google it to find out what I’m talking about!

We adapt new technologies quickly and creatively implement them to address our clients’ diverse challenges. Our goal is simple - we aim to become a global leader in simulation technology, and have the people, skills, and tools to achieve that.