Business Unit Industry

Sustainable and sustainably competitive production in Germany and Europe needs innovations. Currently, the focus is on the optimization of the use of resources, the efficient digitalization of processes, and a development towards maintenance-free and autonomously operating machines. Based on the sensor systems of the Fraunhofer IMS, the Business Unit Industry develops solutions for your applications in the field of robotics and intralogistics, for predictive analytics and the safe use of electronics and AI in the production environment. The business unit Industry addresses in particular the sectors of production, logistics and the energy industry.

Fraunhofer-IMS is one of the initiators of the new innovation platform for industrial innovations "SPIN" and the German platform for Trustworthy Electronics.

The business unit Industry develops sensors for the industrial automation and various other applications
© Volkswagen
The business unit Industry develops sensors for the industrial automation and various other applications

Sustainable production

In order to reduce our CO2 emissions and increase productivity despite a shrinking population, the optimization of production processes and the support of humans by cooperative machines are indispensable. Digitization provides the basis for this. With energy-autonomous sensors and transponder technology, we make process variables accessible and material flows traceable in the digital world in the Industry sector. With the data obtained, we make predictions about machine failures and quality parameters and thus make production easier to plan and control. Sustainable production

Mobile Autonomous Manufacturing

In order for robots and autonomous machines to flexibly support humans in a production environment in the future, they need an accurate image of their surroundings, must be able to recognize hazards and act sensibly without constant instruction. With 3D cameras based on our LIDAR image sensors, accurate spatial images are possible in real time. With embedded artificial intelligence directly at the sensor, we improve the accuracy of the images and interpret the recordings to e.g. recognize people, determine the position of objects or enable control via gestures. Mobile Autonomous Manufacturing

Autonomous guided vehicle (AGV)
© Fraunhofer IMS
We develop sensors for autonomous guided vehicles (AGV) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR)

Trustworthy Electronics

Whereas in the past the keyword "security" was primarily understood to mean the fail-safe operation of machines and systems, questions of information security must increasingly be taken into account as well. Protection against malicious manipulation, intellectual property theft and reverse engineering, plagiarism, sabotage and blackmail is no longer limited to critical infrastructures. We develop solutions for the combination of safety & security without compromise. Based on open hardware standards such as RISC-V, we ensure replication protection, tamper protection and traceability already at the hardware level. Trustworthy Electronics

 

Industrial AI

Artificial intelligence is becoming an everyday component of sensory systems and is taking over cognitive services from humans. We bring AI from the cloud back to the sensor and ensure self-sufficient, secure and privacy-compliant operation even without a communication infrastructure. In this way, we open doors to real-time capable and reliable AI and realize sensor systems that learn during operation - guided by humans or in conjunction with other machines. Industrial AI

Our fields of application - Our expertise for you

Sustainable Production

  • Optimization of raw material and energy use
  • Use of alternative energy sources and energy-autonomous sensors
  • Green ICT

Mobile autonomous Manufacturing

  • Sensors / Control for Robots / Cobots
  • Industrial transport systems (AGV)
  • Human-Machine Interaction

Industrial-AI

  •  Decentralized AI systems and platforms
  • Sensor/actuator optimization and cost efficiency through local AI.
  • Pattern recognition methods

Trustworthy Electronics

  • Protection against product piracy / Counterfeit-proof labeling
  • Tamper-proof and fail-safe electronics
  • Trusted supply chains