Publicly funded projects

Sub-project: Development of composites and functional tests

Fuel cell vehicles are already a technical reality today. However, in order to become economically successful within the context of mobility transition and the desired hydrogen economy, it is important to reduce today´s costs and to become attractive for a broad customer base.

Currently, the cell stack and its subcomponents account for more than 50 percent of the system costs.

The bipolar plate is one of these cost-intensive subcomponents. This is due to the high technical requirements bipolar plates have to meet in mobile fuel cell systems. They require the use of high-quality materials as well as complex and cost-intensive manufacturing processes.

The partners of the GrabaT joint project are focusing on this issue and exploring a bipolar plate material concept based on graphite composites in combination with new engineering solutions. Their aim is a process chain that can provide both a technical platform for future bipolar plate concepts and significant cost reduction potential for bipolar plate manufacturing.

Project duration: 07/2020 to 06/2023

Funding program:

Area of funding: Fuel Cells; Component and Material Development

Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) [German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy] within the framework of the German federal government’s 7th energy research program

Collaboration partner:

• Coperion GmbH
• Matthews International GmbH, Saueressig GmbH + Co. KG
• University of Stuttgart, Institute for plastics engineering

The objective of the EMPHYSIS project is to bridge the gap between the physical modeling and embedded software development domains.

Core deliverable of the project is the new eFMI standard (eFMI: FMI for embedded systems) for the exchange of physics-based models between modelling and simulation environments and software development environments for electronic control units (ECU), micro controllers or other embedded systems. The eFMI standard provides means to represent physical models in an abstracted target independent fashion as well as highly efficient automotive compliant production code, enabling new time and cost effective development workflows for advanced control and diagnosis functions based on physical models.

In close collaboration of researchers, tool vendors, suppliers and automotive OEMs tool prototypes and demonstrators are developed to evaluate the new technology based on realistic automotive usage scenarios.

Project duration: 09/2017 to 02/2021

Funding program: ITEA 3 Call 2

Collaboration partner: EMPHYSIS consortium (25 partners, 5 countries)

• Germany: Bosch, DLR, ETAS, ESI ITI, AbsInt, PikeTec, dSPACE, EFS
• Sweden: Dassault Systèmes AB, Volvo Cars, Modelon, Linköping University, RISE – Research Institute of Sweden SICS East
• France: Siemens SAS, Dassault Systèmes SE, Renault, CEA, University of Grenoble, FH Electronics, OSE, Soben
• Belgium: Siemens NV, Dana, University of Antwerp
• Canada: Maplesoft

Learn more:

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology will play an important role in the future power supply for cities and industry. This is due to its low emissions and high efficiency in the direct conversion of the chemical energy of fuels into electricity.

One of the major success factors of SOFCs is to ensure a long lifetime of the stacks. Therefore, the understanding of degradation mechanisms is required and serves as basis for cell optimization and predictive maintenance strategies.

In the publicly funded project KerSOLife100, we investigate the degradation behavior of a fully ceramic SOFC concept in cooperation with industries, research institutes and universities. Cutting-edge electrochemical, analytical and simulation methods are developed and combined together to generate a deep understanding of the physical processes. The goal is to model aging mechanisms, in order to predict their impact on long-term cell performance. Based on this knowledge, optimization measures, and tailored operating strategies can be defined.

Project duration: 09/2016 to 12/2019

Funding program: Research funding in the 6th energy research program of the German federal government “Forschung für eine umweltschonende, zuverlässige und bezahlbare Energieversorgung” [research for an environmentally friendly, reliable and cost-effective energy supply]

Call for proposals: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) [German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy]
Call “Anwendungsorientierte Forschung und Entwicklung zur nichtnuklearen Energieforschung” [application-oriented research and development on non-nuclear energy research] in the framework of the 6th energy research program of the German federal government
Area of funding: fuel cells and hydrogen technologies

Collaboration partner:

• Forschungszentrum Jülich 
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• Aalen University of Applied Sciences
• Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
• RJL Micro & Analytic GmbH

Hydrogen technology will play an important role in clean mobility and energy solutions of the future. For a wide introduction of hydrogen technology on the market, in particular of the mobile fuel cell vehicle, there is still the need for cost-efficient and reliable system components. Reliability is especially important for hydrogen components made out of metals because hydrogen can deteriorate mechanical properties of these materials, leading to an elevated failure risk of hydrogen exposed components under specific conditions.

The publicly funded project MatHyP (= Materials under Hydrogen Pressure) was initiated to overcome or at least to minimize the failure risk. The project focusses on deriving suitable testing methods, materials engineering and pre-design concepts for components operating in medium and high-pressure hydrogen.

Project duration: 01/2018 to 12/2020

Funding program: 6th energy research program of the federal government “Forschung für eine umweltschonende, zuverlässige und bezahlbare Energieversorgung”[research for an environmentally friendly, reliable and cost-effective energy supply], Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) [German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology]

Project partner:

• University Stuttgart
• MPA Stuttgart

(Co-funding by Deutsche Edelstahlwerke, Andreas Hofer Hochdrucktechnik GmbH, MAN Energy Solutions)

The aim of the ATTENTION project is to develop a method for predicting injuries to vulnerable road users (VRU) such as pedestrians or cyclists in real time. With the help of data-driven AI procedures and digital human models, video data from vehicles and virtual tests are used to determine a situation-specific risk of injury. In the future, injury prediction could help to ensure safe and efficient transport thanks to risk minimization strategies for automated vehicles.

Key achievements as a result of the project include putting in place a position and movement database for pedestrians and cyclists. Data from Bosch accident research are analyzed and used as a basis for biomechanical and AI-based movement prediction. A finite-element crash simulation then provides potential injury patterns which are compared with real accident data and stored in an additional collision and injury database. For prediction purposes, an injury risk index is produced using AI procedures. On the basis of this, further measures can be defined. A virtual demonstrator has been set up for the project.

Project duration: 07/2021 to 06/2024

Subsidy program: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi);

Research program: “New vehicle and system technology”

Consortium partners:

• DYNAmore (Gesellschaft für FEM Ingenieurdienstleistungen mbH)
• Fraunhofer Gesellschaft – Ernst Mach Institut (EMI)
• QualityMinds GmbH
• Robert Bosch GmbH
• University of Stuttgart – Institute for the Modeling and Simulation of Biomechanical Systems (IMSB)

Associated partners:

• Mercedes Benz AG

Current prototypes of automated vehicles prove the feasibility of driverless cars. However, borderline cases still exist today, which require falling back on human operators. Tele-operated Driving (ToD) can be leveraged as an enabling technology to handle these cases without the need for a driver to be on site for each vehicle. Instead, a connection is created over a mobile 5G network that allows a human to remotely control the vehicle. Through such a connection, sensor and vehicle data, e.g., video feeds and velocity are transmitted from the vehicle to a control centre. There, the data is displayed to a human tele-operator who generates control commands such as setting the desired steering wheel angle or velocity. These are then transmitted back to the vehicle for execution.

ToD technology faces a number of challenges that need to be overcome. The transmission of signals over mobile networks leads to latencies that can become too large for safe driving when remotely controlling via direct commands, i.e. when the tele-operator uses steering wheel, accelerator and brake to control the vehicle. Furthermore, the transmitted data volumes impose a great demand on the used mobile networks. With 5G technology, limitations nowadays posed by networks are lifted and 5GCroCo aims to take advantage of this new technology to develop and implement novel concepts for tele-operated driving.

Project duration: 3 years

Funding program and corresponding call for project

• Innovation Action H2020-ICT-18-2018
  Contract 825050 Cooperative, Connected and Autonomous Mobility (CCAM)
  a 5G-PPP Phase III

Collaboration partners: 5GCroCo consortium (24 partners, 7 countries)

• Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Deutsche Telekom AG, POST Luxembourg, Ericsson AB, Ericsson GmbH, Fortiss GmbH, Fundació Barcelona Mobile World Capital, Fundació privada I2CAT, Internet i innovació digital a Catalunya, Hochschule fuer Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes, Huawei Technologies Düsseldorf GmbH, Nextworks, Nokia Solutions and Networks GmbH & Co KG, Orange SA, Peugeot Citroen Automobiles S.A., Renault SAS, Robert Bosch GmbH, Eurecom, Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France, SEC Consult (Luxembourg) SARL, Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, Volvo Personvagnar AB, Worldsensing SL, Ethniko kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon

Automated driving is a disruptive technology which opens the door to future multi-billion markets providing business opportunities to value chains in automotive and semiconductor industry. In order to respond on the global challenge AutoDrive has gathered Europe’s leading semiconductor companies, suppliers, OEMs, and research institutes committed to create a pan-European eco-system, which has the critical mass to initiate standards and provides the components and subsystems for automated driving. AutoDrive aims for the design of (i) fail-aware (self-diagnostics), (ii) fail-safe, (iii) fail-operational (HW and SW redundancy) electronic components and systems architecture that enable the introduction of automated driving in all car categories. AutoDrive results will significantly contribute to safer and more efficient mobility. It will raise end-user acceptance and comfort by supporting drivers in highly challenging situations (active safety) as well as in regular driving situations. Combining both will reduce the number of road fatalities especially in rural scenarios and under adverse weather conditions. AutoDrive will contribute to Europe’s Vision Zero and to improved efficiency.

Project duration: 05/2017 to 11/2020

Funding program: AutoDrive received funding from the Electronic Component Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 737469. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Romania, Norway”

Collaboration partners: AutoDrive consortium (58 partners, 14 countries)

• Germany: AVL Software and Functions GmbH, FEV GmbH, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Förderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V., Georgii Kobold GmbH & Co. KG, Infineon Technologies AG, Infineon Technologies Dresden GmbH, Kromberg & Schubert GmbH & Co. KG, Lange Research Aircraft GmbH, Mercedes-Benz AG, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Amberg-Weiden, Robert Bosch GmbH, Technische Universität Dortmund, Technische Universität Dresden, ZF Friedrichshafen AG
• Austria: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, AVL List GmbH, Infineon Technologies Austria AG, Kompetenzzentrum - Das Virtuelle Fahrzeug, Forschungsgesellschaft MbH, Technische Universität Graz, TTT Auto AG
• Belgium: Flanders Make VZW, Interuniversitair Micro-Electronicacentrum IMEC VZW, On Semiconductor Belgium BVBA, Tenneco Automotive Europe BVBA, XenomatiX
• Czech Republic: Vysoke Uceni Technicke V Brne
• Finland: Murata Electronics OY, Okmetic OYJ, Teknologian Tutkimuskeskus Vtt OY
• Italy: Centro Ricerche Fiat SCPA, Ideas & Motion SRL, Jac Italy Design Center SRL, Magneti Marelli S.P.A., Politecnico Di Milano, Politecnico Di Torino, STMicroElectronics SRL, Universita Di Pisa, Vi-Grade SRL
• Latvia: Elektronikas un Datorzinatnu Instituts
• Lithuania: UAB Metis Baltic, Vilniaus Gedimino Technikos Universitetas
• Netherlands: Heliox BV, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, VDL Enabling Transport Solutions BV
• Norway: Comlight AS, Nxtech AS, Stiftelsen SINTEF, Værste AS, SINTEF AS
• Romania: Infineon Technologies Romania
• Spain: Ayuntamiento de Malaga, Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Irizar S Coop, Microeletronica Maser SL, Universidad De Alcala
• Sweden: Kungliga Tekniska Hoegskolan, Qrtech AB
• Taiwan: Industrial Technology Research Institute Incorporated

The aim of the project “Elektrische, vernetzte und autonom fahrende Elektro-Minibusse im ÖPNV” [electric, connected and autonomously driving electrified mini buses in public transport] (short: EVA shuttle) is the development of a mobility solution for the first and the last mile from the bus stop to the door. In this respect, the project consortium is testing a new offer in public transport, which will provide the user with more options and increased comfort and expand the public transport offering – under real conditions at Testfeld Autonomes Fahren Baden-Württemberg (TAF BW) [test field for autonomous driving in Baden-Württemberg].

Project duration: 10/2018 to 12/2020

Funding program: Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (BMVI) [German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure];
Research program: automated and connected driving

Consortium partners:

• FZI Forschungszentrum Informatik
• Robert Bosch GmbH
• Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH
• TÜV SÜD Auto Service GmbH
• Deutsche-Bahn-Tochter ioki GmbH

Associated partners:

• INIT GmbH; Stadt Karlsruhe
• Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund / Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft

The publicly funded project 3F, “Driverless and fault-tolerant vehicles in the low-speed range”, set out to achieve that shuttle get safely from A to B with a focus on fail-safe operation.

The project’s name TANGO stands for “Technologie für automatisiertes Fahren, die nutzergerecht optimiert wird” in German. Its English equivalent is as follows “Technology for automated driving, optimized to the benefit of the user.”

The target of TANGO is an improvement of the user experience and the acceptance of automated driving functions in trucks. In the project, a new technology which enables the driver to gain a significant added value from the intermediate levels of automated driving is developed, guaranteeing the required comfort.

To ensure that the driver can benefit from the advantages of partially to highly automated vehicles without making any compromises with respect to comfort and safety, both the interaction with the automated system as well as with activities not related to driving are to be designed in a user- and situation-adapted manner.

The TANGO project is centered around the “attention and activities assistant”, which provides the driver with different activities taking into consideration the current state of the driver, the driving situation, the assistance level and the interaction channel used.

The development process is designed in a user-oriented manner, with the phases of user research, requirements analysis, concept development and creation of prototypes up to evaluation.

The project is finished. Learn more about how a virtual companion increases safety for trucks on the road.

Project duration: 12/2016 to 05/2020

Funding program: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) [German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy], funding measure: New vehicle and system technologies – highly and fully automated driving for demanding driving situations

Project partners:

• Volkswagen AG
• MAN Truck & Bus AG
• Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart
• University of Stuttgart

Associated partners:

• CanControls GmbH
• Spiegel Institut Mannheim GmbH & Co. KG

Integrating multi-vendor and multi-trade smart living services into residential buildings in a secure, trustworthy and user-friendly way – this is one of the key approaches of ForeSight. The research project focuses on the vision of a digital ecosystem. Seventeen well-known partners are developing an artificial intelligence platform and a first version of a so-called “GAIA-X Smart Living Shared Dataspace”. A “Shared Dataspace” enables easier networking of cloud resources, data and basic services. Combining methods of artificial intelligence with open standards of building technology is an innovative approach to enable smart applications that save considerable amounts of energy and make living safer and more comfortable. The developed methods are tested in the laboratory, in model apartments and in environments with real residents. The project will finally put several use cases into practice. ForeSight started with a smart digital doorman, further use cases in the field of energy management, assistance systems and predictive maintenance as well as smart building management will follow.

Project duration: 2020 to 2022

Funding program and corresponding call for project:
ForeSight is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) for a period of three years and is the result of the innovation competition “Artificial Intelligence as a Driver for Economically Relevant Ecosystems.”

Collaboration partner:
Aareon Deutschland GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, dormakaba International Holding GmbH, easierLife GmbH, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, Forschungsvereinigung Elektrotechnik beim ZVEI e.V. (FE), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, GdW Bundesverband deutscher Wohnungs- und Immobilienunternehmen e.V., GSW Sigmaringen GmbH, Goethe University Frankfurt, Insta GmbH, IoT CONNCTD GmbH, ixto GmbH, KEO GmbH, Power Plus Communications AG, Strategion GmbH.

The requirements on production systems are continuously being shifted towards higher flexibility and adaptability. The ReCaM project aimed at developing and demonstrating a set of integrated tools for the rapid and autonomous reconfiguration of agile production systems, both at operational as well as managerial levels. It integrates existing production planning and scheduling tools (MES). This approach is based on intelligent plug-and-produce capable self-describing mechatronic objects, which are able to auto-program and self-adjust to the required task by utilizing parametric capabilities. These next-generation flexible production systems and the proposed set of enabling software-based tools will allow a rapid and cost-efficient reaction to dynamic market changes, also in small-lot production contexts, reducing the efforts needed to switch between product types and production quantities. ReCaM solutions are expected to allow increasing the amount of variants and decreasing the lot sizes by 50% in an economically feasible way. Also, at least 30% reduction in set-up and changeover times and costs are expected. The integrated planning tool will take into consideration the energy consumption of the specific resources. The project was grounded on existing de-facto standards and specifications regarding reconfigurable system architectures, resource data models, control architectures, and interfaces, and provided and supplemented new specifications for the missing aspects. The ReCaM consortium comprises a strong involvement of SMEs in R&D and demonstration activities as well as two end users from major EU sectors, thus enabling proper exploitation of the demonstrated results.

A demonstrator of the ReCaM project is now being used within ARENA 2036 for future research activities toward the factory of the future.

Project duration: 11/2015 to 10/2018

Funding program: European Commission, Horizon 2020, Flexible production systems based on integrated tools for rapid reconfiguration of machinery and robots (FoF-11-2015)

Collaboration partners:

• Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Spain
• Politecnico di Milano, Italy
• TTY-Saatio, Finland
• Tampereen korkeakoulusaatio sr, Finland
• nxtcontrol GmbH, Austria
• Companía Española de Sistemas Aeronáuticos SA, Spain
• DGH Robótica, Automatización y Mantenimiento Industrial SA, Spain
• Cosberg SPA, Italy
• EnginSoft SPA, Italy

The MarketPlace consortium utilizes state-of-the-art information technologies to build an open web-based Materials Modeling and Collaboration platform in the form of an open marketplace providing all determining components for the integration of advanced workflows to couple and link various discrete (electronic, atomistic, mesoscopic) and continuum models. It further links various activities and databases on models, provides information on simulation tools, access to experimental characterization, and supports exchange of expertise, lectures and training materials (e.g. tutorials). The proposed MarketPlace will be a central hub for all materials modeling related activities in Europe and provides tools to connect disparate modelling, translators, and manufacturing communities. The MarketPlace consortium aims to strengthen the competitiveness and lower the innovation barrier for the European industry for product development, process design, and optimization by materials modelling.

Project duration: 60 months, starting 01/2018

Funding program: Horizon 2020 – The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the EU (2014-2020); H2020-NMBP-2016-2017 (call for nanotechnologies, advanced materials, biotechnology and production)

Collaboration partner

• FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
• ACCESS e.V.
• ROBERT BOSCH GMBH
• CRYSTALSOL OU
• DCS COMPUTING GMBH
• ENTHOUGHT LTD
• ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
• GOLDBECK CONSULTING LIMITED
• GRANTA DESIGN LTD
• HAUTE ECOLE SPECIALISEE DE SUISSE OCCIDENTALE
• JOHNSON MATTHEY PLC
• L'UREDERRA, FUNDACIÓN PARA EL DESARROLLO TECNOLÓGICO Y SOCIAL
• MBN NANOMATERIALIA SPA
• MTU AERO ENGINES AG
• NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
• STIFTELSEN SINTEF
• UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
• SINTEF OCEAN AS

The increasing complexity of buildings and energy systems in the non-residential sector leads in practice to difficulties in operational management. This deficit leads to an inefficient use of energy, since heat recovery processes and coordinated generation for electricity, heating and cooling can only be used in a targeted manner through overall optimization of the energy system by exploiting the networking of all components. 

So-called agent systems could provide a remedy here. An agent is a delimitable (hardware and/or software) unit with defined objectives. An agent strives to achieve these goals by acting independently and interacts with its environment and other agents. An agent system consists of a set of agents that communicate to perform one or more tasks together. The necessary data exchange with the other agents is much more manageable than with a centrally organized system, as not every single data point has to be made available, analyzed and evaluated centrally for the optimization task. These systems can be developed up to plug-and-play solutions for building services engineering.

Project duration: 3 years

Funding program: Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie (BMWi) [German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy], 7. Energy research program of the federal government “Innovationen für die Energiewende” [Innovations for the energy turnaround]

Collaboration partner:

• RWTH Aachen – E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate
• RWTH Aachen – E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems
• Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Chair of Control Engineering

Today, intralogistic services have to respond quickly to changing market needs, unforeseeable trends, and shorter product life cycles. These drivers mean that intralogistic systems have to be highly flexible, extremely reliable, self-optimizing, quickly deployable, and safe yet efficient in environments shared with humans. ILIAD will enable the transition to automated intralogistic services with key stakeholders from the food distribution sector, where these challenges are particularly pressing. The partners in ILIAD will develop robotic solutions that can integrate with existing warehouse facilities. The goal is to realize self-deploying fleets of heterogeneous robots that operate safely and efficiently in environments shared with humans, as well as efficient fleet management with formal guarantees. With ambitious scientific goals, the project also aims to extend the state of the art in manipulation from a mobile platform and life-long self-optimization.

Project duration: 01/2016 to 12/2020

Funding program: The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 732737 (H2020 ICT-26-2016b)

Collaboration partners:

• Örebro University (Sweden)
• University of Lincoln (UK)
• University of Pisa (Italy)
• TU Munich (Germany)
• Robert Bosch GmbH, Corporate Research (Germany)
• Kollmorgen Automation (Sweden)
• ACT Operations Reseach (Italy)
• Orkla Foods Sverige (Sweden)
• Logistics Engineering Services (UK)