Girish Nanjundaiah on OPAL-RT Innovations Driving Industry Growth

In an interview with TimesTech, Girish Nanjundaiah, Managing Director – Indian Subcontinent, OPAL-RT Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., highlights the cutting-edge advancements in real-time simulation that are shaping industries like automotive, aviation, power, and cybersecurity. He discusses the impact of strategic partnerships, OPAL-RT’s ambitious market goals, and the role of academia in building a skilled engineering workforce for the future.

Read the full interview here:

TimesTech: What key innovations in OPAL-RT’s solutions make a difference in industries like automotive, aviation, power, and cybersecurity?

Girish: The innovations of OPAL-RT in the simulation area of electromechanical systems stand out for their accuracy, speed, and adaption, which are inevitable in the automotive, power, aviation, and cybersecurity markets. The company’s concept is based on the speeding side of system simulations of highly complex, real-time systems to be tested and verified with superior precision. The platform specializes in simulating electromechanical systems with rapid execution speeds, enabling real-time testing of control systems. This is crucial in industries like automotive, where systems such as ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) require high-speed and high-accuracy simulations to ensure safety and functionality. Emerging technologies like eVTOLs (electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircrafts) and ADAS compel OPAL-RT to imagine and model problems that did not yet exist. This foresight is deeply rooted in our interaction with industry experts and a strong commitment to delivering solutions above and beyond current standards. The technology developed in OPAL-RT is apt for testing controllers according to very stringent industry standards, to ensure that the electromechanical systems are robust to the complexity of modern applications. This is important mainly in industries like aviation and power, where precision and reliability are of the highest order. Last but not least, customization to industry needs is possible by closely collaborating with industry leaders. OPAL-RT designs special solutions to meet specific sector needs. This is critical for industries such as automotive and cybersecurity, where the need for new, innovative solutions for testing complex systems, such as autonomous vehicles or secure communication networks, is high. Thus, solutions by OPAL-RT give a strategic advantage, making a difference to industries wanting to test and validate such systems with precision and expediency.

TimesTech: How have partnerships with DRDO, PSUs, and others propelled OPAL-RT’s growth and technological advancements in India?

Girish: OPAL-RT has been quite successful in India due to strategic collaborations with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), and others. These collaborations have worked very well for the speedy growth of OPAL-RT and technological developments within the country. Here’s how these partnerships have contributed to OPAL-RT’s success –

• Testing Complex Systems: Organizations such as DRDO, PSUs, and others involved in defense, power, and industrial sectors have to design and implement very complex systems. These systems usually have to meet very high safety and operational standards before they are deployed in the field. OPAL-RT’s real-time simulation systems enable these organizations to test and validate the performance of their systems in a controlled environment before actual field implementation. This ensures that systems meet all operational criteria and make sure they operate optimally under real-world conditions.

• Most of these complex systems have to function under varying and extreme conditions. OPAL-RT’s solutions allow these organizations to test how their systems behave under different boundary conditions. These simulations help to understand the system’s robustness and reliability under a wide range of scenarios, which is important for both safety and efficiency.

• Advanced systems require these algorithms to be extremely robust and able to adapt as per requirements for real-time data-changing conditions. All of the simulation platforms under OPAL-RT, allow for proper testing and refinement of those algorithms for their capability to work in actual field conditions, thus optimizing performances and reducing the risk of failure once deployed.

• Collaboration for Technological Advances: Through collaboration with DRDO, PSUs, and industry leaders, OPAL-RT gains insights into sectors like defense, energy, etc.. This approach to partnership leads to technological advancements where OPAL-RT tailors/modifies its solutions to meet specific sectoral challenges. Innovative technologies in simulation help achieve greater efficiency, reduce cost, and enhance the performance and safety of the systems being built.

• Real-Time Simulations for Critical Applications: For defense systems, power grids, and industrial automation, the capability to simulate and test real-time operations is invaluable. By providing a virtual environment to test these critical systems, OPAL-RT plays an essential role in helping these organizations deploy reliable and effective solutions.

TimesTech: What strategies is OPAL-RT using to achieve its goal of 30% global market share?

Girish: OPAL-RT is using several key strategies to reach its ambitious goal of capturing 30% of the global market share for its real-time simulation solutions. These strategies reflect the company’s commitment to innovation, customer satisfaction, and its growing influence in critical industrial areas. Here’s how the company is positioning itself for success:

• Strong Repeat Business and Customer Loyalty: OPAL-RT has sold over 330 simulators in India over the last 19 years, with customers frequently reverting to place repeat orders and order more. This is a testament to the usability of the product and OPAL-RT’s strong after-sales support. Their repeat customers, particularly in sectors like electric vehicles (EVs), contribute significantly to the company’s growth.

• Consistent Revenue Growth: The company has witnessed steady revenue growth, reaching a turnover of ₹33 Cr INR two years ago and planning to reach ₹50 Cr next year. Growth is seen in successful deployments across different industries, fueling innovation and demand for their products.

• Contributions to the Economy and Industry: OPAL-RT’s simulators play a big role in Power engineering and its related EV business in India. Many projects in which these simulators have played a decisive role have resulted in direct and positive contributions to the total economy and greenhouse gas(GHG) emission reduction.

• Talent Development and Industry Engagement: OPAL-RT is identified as a “Talent Generation Hub” where the students and professionals have a chance to build critical skills in core engineering disciplines. Eventually, many of their employees go on to be an asset for the industry as they move into the wider ecosystem, to the benefit of both the company and the market.

• The central mission is towards the quest for continuous innovations in innovative fields such as green technologies, digital transformation, and cybersecurity. OPAL-RT produces products and user engineers overcome intricate challenges and new developments and place the company well in its industry.

• Strategic Acquisitions and Innovation Leadership: Acquisitions like that of 4D-Virtualiz helped OPAL-RT strengthen its leadership position in the real-time simulation area. With this, OPAL-RT now offers 4DV-SIM, a high-fidelity, 3D environment simulator made for on-road and off-road autonomous vehicles and robotics systems featuring a wide range of sensors, including cameras, LiDAR, IMUs and GNSS.

• Global Market Expansion with Focus on India: The operations of OPAL-RT in India are an important strategic advantage. The Indian Power Grid is complex, providing a unique testing ground that increases the global competitiveness of OPAL-RT. The company taps into India’s vast pool of engineering talent to support its global market aspirations, tapping into the dynamic demand for engineering and testing in the country.

• Customer-centric approach to continuous innovation: Through listening to customer pain points and responding to them with innovative solutions, OPAL-RT keeps its products in line with demand. The company has a vested interest in maintaining a leading position in competition through constant innovation that helps the customer overcome issues, which brings about its own innovation.

Thus, it could be said that OPAL-RT’s path toward global domination is driven through a unique fusion of customer loyalty, continued innovation, strategic acquisition, as well as great emphasis in building talent and getting in tune with the key industries. Such strategies would bring OPAL-RT within a significant range of their ambitious global market share, of more than 30%.

TimesTech: How does OPAL-RT’s collaboration with academic institutions like IITs and NITs contribute to building industry-ready engineers?

Girish: OPAL-RT’s collaboration with academic institutions, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), help to generate industry-ready engineers and creates a talent pipeline that benefits both academics and industry. The company’s significant emphasis on Talent Development and sector Engagement helps to bridge the gap between academics and the real-world technical needs of the engineering sector. OPAL-RT becomes a “Talent Generation Hub” for allowing students and professionals to polish their abilities in fundamental engineering disciplines such as simulation, automation, and embedded systems. OPAL-RT collaborates with academic institutions to provide students with advanced simulation tools and real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) systems that are required for both coursework and research. This is an experience that graduates are ensured to have so that they are ready to enter industry roles without any hassle.

When these students enter the workforce, they often buy or use similar simulators in their respective industries, creating a seamless transition from academic learning to industry application. The company also frequently hires talent from the pool of students and researchers who have engaged with its products and solutions. In fact, OPAL-RT has developed strong relations with MNCs and other industry leaders who often visit academic institutions where OPAL-RT products are used and specifically seek out graduates who have been trained on these systems. This proactive engagement ensures that students are primed for employment, significantly reducing training time and costs for these hiring companies.

Thus by collaborating with these institutions, OPAL-RT advances its business goals while helping to cultivate a highly skilled, industry-ready workforce that meets the needs of a rapidly evolving tech landscape. This collaboration ultimately contributes to the growth and sustainability of the engineering and technology sectors, benefiting both the academic and industrial worlds.

Technically also, no other real time simulation technology serves as many industries as we do. So it suits the academia the best in terms of serving the industry and the nation.

TimesTech: How has the engineering simulation landscape evolved during your tenure, and what role has OPAL-RT played in this transformation?

Girish: The simulation landscape has changed dramatically in the last 20 years since we created the India branch of OPAL-RT. Hardware-in-loop simulation, which was once considered a luxury, is now regarded as a requirement. Many initiatives increasingly recognized the importance of ensuring the project’s success. Customers have gotten increasingly demanding. Previously, we just provided simulators but now, there is a huge need for a high level of personalisation. Customers always prefer a plug-and-play solution. We now serve fresh sectors with many more protocols, and our applications are rapidly growing. Now we don’t need to go to clients and explain why they need to undertake real-time simulation, we don’t have to introduce OPAL-RT as we used to, compared to what it was 20 years ago, the use of hardware-in-loop simulation has undergone a huge paradigm change.

TimesTech: What emerging trends do you see shaping the future of real-time simulation and control systems?

Girish: OPAL-RT, being a leader in real-time simulation and control systems, has identified a few emerging trends that shape the future of this field, from growing complexity to more agilely demanding faster and more efficient simulation systems across diverse industries.

• Superfast Multi-Core Processors and FPGAs in Real-Time Simulation: The use of high-performance multi-core processors and Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has become a key trend in real-time simulation. These technologies enable faster computation and real-time processing, which is crucial for simulating complex systems with high accuracy. This approach has been widely adopted across industries, with many companies following suit as they recognize the need for enhanced processing power in real-time environments.

• Making simulation accessible for every engineer. Increasing integral requirements by technology at engineering processes boosts demand and pressures companies towards simplifying making them smaller and less costly; furthermore more and more convenient, putting in practice all engineers the opportunity of getting real performances simulation and testing a lot nearer than being able to rely directly and even there prototyping and engineering from scratch much faster so the opportunities opened through simulation on innovation capabilities rise directly with reduced accessibility boundaries and costs:.

• Evolution in Simulation Types. The process of simulation itself has undergone a lot of change. Simulations began as purely analog models, then transitioned to the hybrid model, and then into purely digital. Nowadays, there is a trend towards specialized analog benches in some applications where the benefits of analog simulation are again reintroduced to fulfill specific requirements such as real-time control and HIL testing. This shift has opened avenues for more specifically and precisely simulating complex physical systems.

• Academic Acceptance of Real-Time Simulation: Increasingly, academia recognizes the benefits of real-time simulation in teaching and research. The tools of real-time simulation are applied to engineering students to model, simulate, and control real systems in real-time. The real-time simulation is an achievement that promotes the learning process and prepares the learners for the workforce in industries relying on such technologies. This support helps to propel innovation and progress the research in the fields of robotics, automotive, aerospace, and many others.

• Emerging Markets Growth: The eVTOL aircraft and ADAS industries are new sources of demand for real-time simulation technologies. These emerging markets are driving the boundaries of simulation and control systems to be more sophisticated in models for testing and development. As these markets grow, they will drive further innovations in simulation technologies to meet the complex challenges of these emerging applications.

Thus, emerging markets like eVTOLs and ADAS will continue to drive innovation, while the shift towards specialized analog simulation and smaller, more affordable simulators will make these technologies available to a wider range of engineers and researchers.