CD Technical Meeting (VI4): Building visualizations of fusion digital twins with OpenUSD and Omniverse
Abstract
Making fusion energy commercially viable is a complex, multidisciplinary challenge that depends on teams with very different expertise working through integrated, traceable workflows. In this talk we show how UKAEA is using OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) as the backbone for implementing those workflows: an open, scalable framework for composing 3D worlds at scale that can connect engineering geometry, metadata and time‑varying operational and simulation data. Built on OpenUSD, NVIDIA Omniverse adds real‑time, multi‑user collaboration and a GPU‑accelerated ecosystem for visualization, simulation and interoperability, enabling digital worlds that can enhance facility design, operation and manufacturing. We present our approach to integrating user tools and data sources with OpenUSD, and how we leverage interactive Omniverse experiences of our fusion research facilities to improve multidisciplinary workflows. The result is a composable framework for building actionable digital twin visualizations to improve cross-domain communication and decision-making.