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Decarbonizing long-haul freight transport is one of Europe’s toughest climate challenges – and ZEFES is tackling it where it matters most: in real-world operation. By developing modular zero-emission vehicle platforms and demonstrating battery-electric and fuel-cell trucks under daily long-haul conditions, the ZEFES project goes beyond isolated pilots. It aims to prove that zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles can match or even exceed the performance, efficiency and usability of today’s diesel trucks – paving the way for large-scale deployment in line with the European Green Deal.

What will tomorrow's agriculture look like? How will electrified and automated vehicles affect our future nutrition? And what do research scientists actually do all day? With these and many other questions in mind, two fifth-grade classes from the Campus Cordis Community School visited Fraunhofer IVI. As part of a week-long project, the students were working intensively on the topics of climate change and sustainability. Accordingly, their interest in electrified and automated agriculture as research topics was particularly high.

A central building block for the safe and efficient use of autonomous mobile machines such as agricultural robots or construction machines is the reliability of their sensory systems. Currently, there are only a few suppliers for the required technologies, as these often only exist as concepts or the required skills and resources are only available in large companies. Therefore, there is a lack of accessible and cost-effective solutions in the section of mobile machines for medium-sized companies.

The semiconductor industry is facing major challenges: Complex planning processes, regular conversions of production facilities, and the shortage of skilled workers make it difficuult to adapt to shorter and shorter product lifecycles. The planning phase for a conversion, which is usually necessary every other year, can take up to six months. To support these processes and make them more efficient, precise and sustainable, Fraunhofer IVI cooperates with project coordinator RX Design Germany GmbH in the FastFabDesign research project with the aim of finding a digital solution that uses innovative algorithms and artificial intelligence.

No more casualties and severely injured persons in road traffic – this is what Vision Zero stands for as a global concept. The aim is to implement innovative technology, better infrastructure and comprehensive education initiatives in order to jointly create a future in which road traffic is safe for everyone. Since 2024, the Deutsche Verkehrssicherheitsrat (DVR, German Road Safety Council) has been presenting the DVR Vision Zero Award to projects that reduce the risk of road accidents through creative safety measures and bring us closer to Vision Zero.

How can we charge electric trucks and other heavy commercial vehicles in a fast, efficient, and space-saving way in the future? This was the central question when Fraunhofer IVI and their application partner, Stadtreinigung Dresden GmbH, welcomed Tobias Wagner, professional trucker and influencer known as the Elektrotrucker, at the institute. On our test track, we presented our innovative charging solution for commercial e-vehicles to him and invited him to experience it for himself.

How can vehicle sensors and infrastructure sensors work together to create one reliable situation report—and make automated driving safer through it? This is the question that the VALISENS project partners spent three years researching in detail by investigating how the environment of automated vehicles can be detected so that all road users are kept safe. During the project's closing event at Fraunhofer IVI in Dresden, the consortium presented their results in front of an expert audience and showcased in a demonstration on the institute's test track how research can be transferred directly to practical application.

On November 15, 2025, around 50 representatives of German and Polish disaster management authorities met at the CIFAD-III status event in Weisswasser, Saxony. Together, they were informed about the project's progress in the area of transnational operations and resource management.

To enable autonomous flight, aerial systems must be able to perceive their surroundings and continuously classify objects in real time. This requires the use of various sensors – including RGB cameras – whose heterogeneous data must be reliably processed and made available for autonomous flight control. With the help of AI-based semantic segmentation, the system can divide its environment into meaningful categories, such as roads, buildings, vegetation, or obstacles, enabling informed decisions during tasks like obstacle avoidance, emergency landings, or the inspection of critical infrastructure like power lines. However, under changing lighting conditions, rapid movements, or limited training data, the quality of video analysis tends to fluctuate.

To explore current research activities and options for collaboration, representatives of TU Bergakademie Freiberg visited the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden. Together with Prof. Dr. Sebastian Zug, Chair of Software Enigineering and Robotics, and Prof. Dr. Bastian Pfleging, Chair of Ubiquitous Computing and Smart Systems, Fraunhofer IVI scholars discussed new project ideas in reaserch and education.