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The Fraunhofer IVI at Florian trade fair

October 5 - 7, 2017

The Fraunhofer IVI will be presenting their solutions in the field of civil protection and security once again at the FLORIAN trade fair for Fire Brigades, Civil Protection and Disaster Control in Dresden.

The technologies presented by the Fraunhofer IVI at the trade fair support complex strategic, operative and tactical decisions in emergency response. End users are planners, command staff and relief forces from fire rescue and emergency services as well as disaster management.

At the FLORIAN trade fair, the Fraunhofer IVI will present both the newly developed app for smartphones and tablets as well as the online version for operational command. A further highlights of the showcase is the new concept for the MobiKat master data portal, which will be developed stepwise to become a cross-organizational resource management platform.

The Fraunhofer researchers are happy to present their current developments at the joint booth (hall 3, booth B3) with their partners TÜV Rheinland, SiKonA and KL FORMAT.

TRANSFORMERS Final Conference

August 22, 2017

On June 29, the Final Conference of the European research project TRANSFORMERS »Configurable and Adaptable Trucks and Trailers for Optimal Transport Efficiency« was held at the Volvo Trucks Experience Center in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The consortium, which included 13 renowned European partners, presented as their project results four innovations to increase the transport efficiency for semi-trailers:

Hybridization of the overall vehicle by installation of an electric drivetrain into the semi-trailer
Development of a novel double loading floor to improve the loading efficiency
Measures in aerodynamics to reduce air resistance
Adaptability of all measures to specific transport tasks

More than 100 guests, including well-known European commercial vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, research institutes, public authorities and end users had the opportunity to convince themselves that a CO₂ reduction of 25 percent (measured in g/(t*km)) is possible due to a clever combination of all project innovations. ODER … that a clever combination of all methods made a CO₂ decrease of 25 percent (measured in g/(t*km)) possible.

Cartox² Kick-Off Meeting

August 17, 2017

On August 17, the Fraunhofer IVI hosted the Cartox² kick-off meeting. Cartox² is a service platform for generic services of connected and automated driving, which will be developed within a 3-year research project.

In addition to the coordinator Fraunhofer IVI, the TU Dresden and several software companies (CETECOM GmbH, hrd.consulting, Software AG, MechLab Engineering UG) are members of the consortium.

Potential users of Cartox² include car manufacturers, suppliers, telecommunications providers, municipalities and authorities as well as providers of digital mobility services.

The platform will collect and process information on the car-2-car connectivity, the network coverage for the car-2-infrastructure communication as well as data routing to and in between the edge clouds, i.e. the access points of the cloud environment. Besides communication and positioning data, mCloud data are also included (Broadband Atlas, DB network radar, DB rail network, and weather data). Cartox² is going to combine this data, which will be revalued by aggregation, to one Big Data platform. By means of algorithms and data analysis, new data-driven services and business models can be developed.

The project will run until June 2020, supported with funding from the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) within the mFUND research initiative.

Launch of Research Project »Feldschwarm®«

July 5, 2017

Digitization, electrification, autonomous and self-organized work in the fields – even in the seemingly archaic field of agriculture, extensive transformation processes are currently underway and ready to meet the challenges of the next industrial revolution. These developments will outshine many others, given their global relevance in the face of a predicted world population of almost 10 billion people. At that time, feeding the world will only be possible by means of a highly efficient and sustainable agriculture. The research project »Feldschwarm^®« (field swarm), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as an innovative regional growth core with a total of 8 million €, will contribute to these developments. After several years of thorough preparations, the project has finally been kicked-off as the grant notifications were handed over in Dresden’s »Transparent Factory« on 5^th July. In collaboration with the international market leader John Deere, Saxon SMEs, research institutes of the TU Dresden and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will develop highly flexible and automated agricultural machinery that protect the soil and build upon renewable propulsion technologies. With a total budget of 12 million €, the 3-year project is one of the most voluminous R&D project in Saxon agricultural engineering.

Increased Safety for Automated Driving – Project SePIA Launched

June 15, 2017

The future technologies of automated and connected driving and Intelligent Transport Systems are making progress all around the world. Vehicles with automated driving functions have to achieve at least the level of driving skills of an attentive human driver. To improve the functional safety of these novel technologies in the future, the project SePIA (Scenario-Based Platform for the Inspection of Automated Driving Functions) will develop and analyze a complex validation platform for electronic subsystems and the overall vehicle under the coordination of the FSD GmbH.

The six project partners met on 15 June in Radeberg at FSD’s glass test stand. The consortium members include FSD, TraceTronic GmbH, the Fraunhofer IVI, the TU Dresden (Chairs of Computer Graphics and Visualisation & Automobile Engineering) and the Institute for Traffic Accident Research at Dresden University of Technology. The Fraunhofer IVI will provide accident data, process and detect the criticality of accident and report data and analyze the critical scenarios yet missing.

Further information:

SePIA project website

German Mobility Award 2017

The Fraunhofer IVI is among the winners with a new method for road safety education

The »Germany – Land of Ideas« initiative and the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure have announced 10 outstanding digital innovations for safe mobility. As one of the winners, the research project »FAPS – Fraunhofer IVI Accident Prevention School« was honored as lighthouse project for intelligent mobility.

Press release

Prize winner website (in German)

Presentation of Modular Bus Concepts

EBSF2-Demonstration in Dresden

Based on results of the European research project »European Bus System of the Future – EBSF«, the follow-up project EBSF 2 started in May 2015. More than 40 partners pool their expertise to develop and test technologies for the bus transport of tomorrow. The Fraunhofer IVI contributes to two larger research topics. One of them is concerned with the needs-based adaption of the length of city buses during regular operation. It proposes to split a multi-unit bus so that the trailer can be detached at the articulation joint and the remaining segment can be used independently. The implementation was carried out in co-operation with Hübner GmbH, the world’s leading manufacturer of articulation systems.

The innovative solution was officially demonstrated on June 21^st, 2017, using the AutoTram® Extra Grand. Numerous international guests came to visit the Fraunhofer IVI in Dresden to follow this presentation.

The project is funded within the European Research Framework Programme HORIZON 2020 and coordinated by UITP.

Impressions from a Night of Knowledge

Dresden's 15th Science Night on June 16, 2017

Under the motto »a night creating knowledge«, numerous research-related institutions opened their doors to welcome visitors on Dresden’s Science Night for the 15^th time. The Fraunhofer IVI also participated in the event by once more offering a diverse program.

In addition to a display on the history of computer engineering, which invited the visitors to dive into the world of abacuses and analog IT, the institute also presented the current Big Data trend in more detail. As an example, the project iSand demonstrated how information from social media sources can be processed for the use in disaster management. Another highlight for the visitors was the autartec® FreiLichtHaus. The house came to life by means of augmented reality, turning from a simple 2D print into a tangible, real object on the tablet screen. The Guide2Wear project sparked the audience’s interest by showing the potential of wearable devices in public transport navigation. The evening program was rounded off with a kids’ station offering little handicrafts projects and the opportunity to try the computer games of the parent generation.

Get-Together of Electric Logistics Experts

2nd »Electric Freight Traffic« User’s Day

On June 14, more than 50 experts from innovative logistics companies, electric vehicle manufacturers and related research institutions met during the industry-specific user’s day to discuss current challenges in electric freight traffic. The event was held in the city of Essen, for the first time in cooperation with the Haus der Technik e. V. In addition to this year’s main topics of financing and procurement, the participants debated vividly on new technological developments: »Introduction barriers – such as the battery prices, which are still too high – can be implemented in an economically feasible way by using suitable technical measures like ageing diagnosis«, Claudius Jehle says. He is manager of the Fraunhofer IVI’s group on Storage Systems and Converters. With its remote remote battery monitoring system, the institute is well equipped for the future requirements of electric logistics.

Press release (in German)

Annual Conference Celebrating »25 Years of Fraunhofer in the New Federal States of Germany«

May 29-31, 2017

For 25 years now, Fraunhofer has been an established engine of progress in the federal states of Germany. No other research organization was so quickly and supportively present on site in the period of political and social upheaval in East Germany in 1989/1990. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft took the opportunity to celebrate this anniversary during the Annual Conference by hosting a public event in the city center of Dresden, as well as an interactive exhibition showcasing the organization’s research highlights.

On the evening of May 30, the »Joseph von Fraunhofer Prizes« awards ceremony was held. Since 1978, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has annually been honoring researchers for their outstanding scientific achievements solving application-oriented problems. This year, four awards of 50,000 euros each were presented. In addition, the event honored the winner of the 2017 Fraunhofer award »Human-Centered Technology«, a prize that is announced every two years. Guest speakers at the event included Stanislaw Tillich (Minister President of the Free State of Saxony) and Prof. Johanna Wanka (Federal Minister for Education and Research).

Award winners

Following the award ceremony, interested »night owls« were invited to join an interactive tour in Dresden’s city center. Actors played eager, curious science journalists who took the visitors on a journey through time. Prof. Matthias Klingner, Lars Seiffert (Director, Operations and HR of the Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe AG) and Dr. Frank Dressel, a representative of the »Zukunftsstadt«, got together in a round of talks at the Albertinum to discuss mobility topics, including also the Saxon initiative »Synchronized Mobility 2023«. Altogether, a broad public audience had the chance to learn about the relevance of research and knowledge networks in a vivid and artistic manner.

Another highlight was the interactive anniversary exhibition »#real_digital: Creating values together«, showing important events and exemplary technologies of Fraunhofer research. The official opening of the exhibition took place on May 29 at the International Congress Center Dresden, featuring speeches by Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and further high-profile guests.