Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation
| Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation |
|
|---|---|
 Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation |
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| Category: | research Institute |
| Carrier: | Fraunhofer Society |
| Legal form of the carrier: | Registered association |
| Seat of the wearer: | Munich |
| Facility location: | Magdeburg |
| Type of research: | Applied research |
| Subjects: | Engineering |
| Areas of expertise: | Engineering , computer science , economics , human sciences , natural sciences , mathematics |
| Basic funding: | Federal government (90%), states (10%) |
| Management: | Julia C. Arlinghaus |
| Employee: | 199 (as of 2018) |
| Homepage: | www.iff.fraunhofer.de |
The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF is an institution of the Fraunhofer Society . The institute is based in Magdeburg . It is a research service provider as well as a system and technology partner for industry, medium-sized companies and small companies in the production and service sectors as well as for the public sector. Its activities can be assigned to applied research and development in the key areas of intelligent work systems, resource-efficient production and logistics, convergent infrastructures, digital engineering and Industry 4.0.
history
Initiated by Eberhard Gottschalk (TU Magdeburg), the conceptual preparation for the establishment of a production-oriented Fraunhofer Institute at the Magdeburg location from the TU Magdeburg and the FER engineering company for automation Magdeburg took place in 1991.
At the beginning of 1992 a Fraunhofer facility for factory operation and automation (IFF), initially limited to June 30, 1994, was incorporated into the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. This time limit was lifted early in 1993 and the "facility" was named the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF). In 1998 the IFF moved into the newly built institute building near the University of Magdeburg. In 2003, planning began for the construction of the Virtual Development and Training Center (VDTC) in the Magdeburg Science Harbor . This research and training center for virtual technologies was completed in 2006. In 2009 the institute opened a branch in Bangkok - the ASEAN office.
In 2018 the VDTC was named the "European Digital Innovation Hub" (DIH) in Saxony-Anhalt. With the DIH, the European Commission has created a network of competence centers that is intended to support companies with questions relating to digitization. They should be the first point of contact for SMEs in particular and offer opportunities to experiment with the new technologies. The activities of the DIH "VDTC of the Fraunhofer IFF" are closely linked to the Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Center Magdeburg and the Mittelstand 4.0 Competence Center "Planning and Building". Since October 2019, the Fraunhofer IFF has been led by Julia C. Arlinghaus, who also heads the Chair for Production Systems and Automation at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg.
Head of Institute:
- 1992 - 1994 Eberhard Gottschalk
- 1994 - 2019 Michael Schenk
- since 2019 Julia C. Arlinghaus
Research and Development
The Fraunhofer IFF researches and develops application-oriented in the research fields of intelligent work systems, resource-efficient production and logistics, convergent infrastructures as well as digital engineering and Industry 4.0 . To do this, it uses the business areas of logistics and factory systems, virtual engineering , robot systems, measurement and testing technology, biosystems engineering, convergent infrastructures, material flow technology and automation .
The research fields at a glance:
- Intelligent work systems : The Fraunhofer IFF sees itself as a driver of innovation in the design of production technology and work systems of the future. The aim is to maintain or improve the company's performance and product quality over the long term and at the same time to increase the flexibility of the production systems. To this end, the Fraunhofer IFF is developing, among other things, new technologies for safe human-robot collaboration . In this way, the cognitive flexibility and willingness to act of humans are linked with the high productivity of automated systems. It designs integrated solutions for the use of digital assistance systems as well as the most modern measuring and testing technologies for quality assurance in production. And it establishes virtual learning methods for the flexible and effective qualification of employees.
- Resource-efficient production and logistics: In order to increase the sustainability and effectiveness of production and to reduce the risks in the supply chain , the Fraunhofer IFF designs efficient production and logistics systems. Among other things, this means planning and operating factories more efficiently, establishing innovative methods and technologies for optimizing supply and production processes, and introducing intelligent energy cascades in production. For closed energy and material cycles, the researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF are designing new plant technologies with which valuable raw and residual materials can be used and recycled sustainably. As a system service provider, the Fraunhofer IFF raises efficiency potential both at company level and in cross-company production and logistics networks.
- Convergent infrastructures: The future of energy supply should completely replace fossil fuels and nuclear power as energy suppliers in the long term. They are to be replaced by renewable energy sources such as sun, wind and water power, but also by residues from production and recycling material. This is accompanied by the development of new storage technologies and increasingly efficient systems for energy generation, as well as the construction of new, decentralized and intelligent energy supply networks. In order to set up the new, complex supply and disposal infrastructures in and between companies and their environment, the Fraunhofer IFF bundles its competencies in the areas of production, logistics, energy and information and communication technologies. Its researchers develop intelligent systems for energy management and design integrated production and logistics networks to enable the safe use of volatile energies. And with the development and use of innovative VR technologies , they support the planning and development process of large-scale projects in the industrial and urban environment and make them visible in advance for everyone involved.
- Digital engineering and Industry 4.0: Digitization and Industry 4.0 are considered to be the future model of the German economy. With the help of digital engineering , the digital construction data of a product can be used at all stages of its development and production process. Independent of the industry, the Fraunhofer IFF develops solutions that offer new forms and characteristics of organizational, semantic and technical interoperability in interdisciplinary cooperation. This research and development is always application-specific and tailored to the customer.
VDTC
The abbreviation “VDTC” stands for “Virtual Development and Training Center”. The VDTC was completed in 2006 at the Magdeburg Science Harbor as the second location of the Fraunhofer IFF and has been a research and training center for virtual technologies ever since. In the VDTC, the Fraunhofer IFF conducts application-oriented research in the field of virtual engineering for planning, testing and operating technical systems as well as in the field of energy technology.
In the high-tech laboratories of the VDTC, scientists work on an interdisciplinary basis with industrial users and innovative service providers. In a highly practice-oriented manner, visual-interactive simulations, for example for virtual product and process development, are developed together. In addition to virtual function tests, virtual training is the focus of research at the VDTC.
In 2019, the construction of an extension building for the VDTC began. This will add an office building with a technical center to the existing building to the north. The expansion is to offer space for 40 employees and workshop / technical center spaces on an additional 1,410 m² of usable space.
- See also: virtualization (computer science) , computer visualistics .
3D mixed reality laboratory »Elbedome«
The »Elbedome« is a central element of the Fraunhofer IFF's research infrastructure. This 3D mixed reality laboratory for industrial applications, which is currently the largest in Europe, is located in the VDTC in the Magdeburg Science Harbor.
The »Elbedome«, built in 2006 under the name Elbe-Dom and modernized in 2018, is a laboratory for the large-scale display of interactive visualizations. Due to its enormous dimensions compared to classic projection systems, the »Elbedome« is particularly suitable for demonstrating large objects such as machines and systems on a 1: 1 scale or for visualizing entire factories or even cities. The shape of the same mandrel corresponds to an upwardly opening ball layer having a diameter of about 16 meters. It has a 360-degree panorama and floor projection area of 450 square meters. Thanks to the high-resolution stereoscopic projections, the virtual worlds in the »Elbedome« are perceived as three-dimensional. The three-dimensional representation gives users the feeling of being in the middle of the projection. Together with the existing tracking systems, users can move realistically and true to scale in the virtual worlds created here and interact with them. In addition, real machines and robots can be placed in the »Elbedome« and linked to virtual scenarios. Interactions between different technical systems and with people can be tested very close to reality, their controls can be optimized or design and ergonomics tests can be carried out. The focus of this mixed reality laboratory lies in the processing and visualization of large planning and simulation data sets as well as real-time data from production.
The Fraunhofer IFF uses the »Elbedome« as part of its research, among other things for the design review of factories, systems and machines, for the development of intelligent work systems, for ergonomic studies or infrastructure planning. The possible uses of the »Elbedome« go far beyond the industrial sector, so that this laboratory can also be used as an experience, learning and creative space as well as a marketing instrument, for example for the presentation of architectural projects.
Cooperations
The Fraunhofer IFF is a member of numerous Fraunhofer alliances and associations.
- Fraunhofer Group for Production
- Allianz Vision (image processing)
- Alliance autoMOBILE production
- Alliance Energy
- Alliance additive manufacturing
- Allianz Construction
- Alliance Textile
- Allianz Transport
- Alliance Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
In the university area, there is a cooperation with the Institute for Logistics and Material Flow Technology at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg , which covers the basic research needs of the Fraunhofer IFF and is favored by the double functions of the institute director (also chair holder). Further collaborations exist with the Institute for Process Engineering and the Institute for Electrical Energy Systems at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and with the Institute for Electrical Engineering at Magdeburg-Stendal University . The institute also cooperates with the Technical University in Hamburg and the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF also works with many regional, national and international research institutions and project partners, e. B .:
- Building Smart eV
- Medical and health technology cluster of the state of Saxony-Anhalt
- Fasa eV
- Research Association Smart Engineering eV
- Galileo transport
- Mittelstand 4.0 competence center
- Mittelstand 4.0 competence center for planning and building
- LiA - performance center for intelligent work systems
Infrastructure
At the end of December 2018, the Fraunhofer IFF employed 199 people, the majority of whom were scientists and technicians. There were also 154 research assistants who were temporarily employed over the course of the year.
The total budget in the 2018 financial year was 21.3 million euros. Around 10.1 million euros of this came from the public sector, the EU and other sources. Around 5.5 million euros of this was due to institutional funding. Around 5.7 million euros of the operating budget were income from contract research.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Festschrift 10 Years of the Fraunhofer IFF . pdf, 6.23 MB
- ↑ HKS Architects: Award for expansion of the Fraunhofer Institute , August 31, 2017
- ^ Weiske + Partner: Fraunhofer Institute IFF - Extension of the VDTC / Magdeburg . Project visualization of the extension building
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 21.7 ″ N , 11 ° 39 ′ 6.7 ″ E