Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVIAutomated and connected mobility solutions must handle highly complex scenarios safely and efficiently – from difficult-to-assess traffic situations and multimodal on-demand services to automated fleet solutions on highways and in depots. Similarly demanding is the use of drone swarms in the civilian sector, such as for the inspection of solar fields, monitoring of wind turbines, or rescuing wildlife in agricultural areas. These intelligent systems have the potential to revolutionize processes and counteract skilled labor shortages, provided their behavior is robust, reliable, and adaptive.
The Intelligent Cooperative Systems department develops, implements, and manages (semi-)autonomous systems that integrate mobile platforms and their infrastructure. The focus is on cooperation between actors – ranging from reliable information exchange and intelligent communication to the development of appropriate protocols, applications, and simulation infrastructures.
Cooperative Systems
Through functionally safe infrastructure assistance, resilient connectivity and collaboration, we enable vehicles to safely navigate complex situations. Algorithms for data analysis and mobility management can be used to record traffic-relevant scenarios and evaluate anomalies in the transportation network. With the help of simulation environments, alternative courses of action can be analyzed and evaluated based on this information. Thanks to the integration of swarm intelligence, it is possible to optimize and efficiently control entire mobility systems.
Swarm Technology
To make the automated systems of the future robust, scalable, and reliable, swarm technology is a key area of focus for the department. It enables the efficient development of complex systems with many simultaneously operating units. At the core of this work lies the development of an infrastructure for quadcopter swarms, which can flexibly adapt to various deployment scenarios in agriculture, civil security, or infrastructure monitoring. These systems can operate fully autonomously, but also offer the option for monitoring and adjustment by human operators.