Press

Erlangen: Fully automated and autonomous vehicles should be able to respond appropriately in every situation. Together with partners in the "KI-FLEX" project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is developing a platform that uses artificial intelligence methods to help measure vehicle position and determine vehicle environment in the future.

Energy storage systems are of crucial importance to all sectors of industry involved in the energy and mobility transition. The idea behind Germany’s ‘Forschungsfertigung Batteriezelle’ is to create a development center for battery cell production that will serve the whole of Germany. Known by its German abbreviation FFB, the new battery cell research facility will close the current gap in the value chain of primary and rechargeable batteries and eliminate the need to depend on other markets. The project team, which consists of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and its research partners, is now embarking on the first steps to put the FFB concept into practice at the chosen location of Münster in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Agrophotovoltaics (APV) allows for the dual harvesting of crops and photovoltaic electricity on the same piece of land, providing sustainable solutions under consideration of soil protection and water conservation. The first international conference on APV systems AgriVoltaics2020 will take place in Perpignan, France from August 26-28, 2020 under the motto “Launching Agrivoltaics World Wide.” The conference is organized by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the PSE Conferences & Consulting GmbH in Freiburg.

What are Europeans going to eat in 2035? How can food be produced using fewer resources? And what will the food sector look like in the future? These and other questions are part of the EU Horizon 2020 project FOX. A new brochure by Fraunhofer ISI presented today at the 33rd EFFoST International Conference in Rotterdam describes the 50 most compelling food trends, from which scientists and food experts have selected the 15 most relevant ones.

Electromobility sets challenging requirements for new high-performance batteries – cruising range, life span, safety, or charging times, to mention only a few. An intrinsic challenge is the resource need for a growing number of big car batteries. Ten partners from industry and research organizations successfully joined forces in the EU funded project ECO COM'BAT to develop a sustainable next generation of high-voltage lithium-ion batteries.

Erlangen/Magdeburg, Germany: At the final review of the Celtic-Plus project “ReICOvAir – Reliable Industrial Communication Over the Air” the project team, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, presented a new test system for industrial wireless communication. The developed test system consists of a software-based and a hardware-based test bed solution. Both test beds are proof-of-concept solutions for testing the performance of wireless transmission systems, e.g., in terms of measuring and evaluating reliability, latency and throughput.

From July 1-3, 2019, experts from around the world met at the E-Mobility & Circular Economy (EMCE 2019) Conference in Tokyo to explore how electromobility can contribute to a sustainable and responsible approach to our environment.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Dresden, a new type of iron powder has been successfully processed and tested, which answers one of the cost questions in additive manufacturing and opens up new possibilities.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS expands its range of microstructure diagnostics with Hitachi's HF5000 field emission transmission electron microscope. The presentation of the new microscope took place during a workshop in Halle (Saale). In this meeting, international experts were presented with novel microscopy technologies as well as a demonstration of possible applications of the HF5000.

“The future of sustainable value creation systems” was the theme of a workshop on the Biological Transformation of the European manufacturing industry, hosted by the European Technology Platform ManuFUTURE and Fraunhofer in Brussels. Some 40 experts from industry, the European Commission and research institutions discussed how materials, structures and processes of living nature could be used in manufacturing for a more sustainable future. In parallel the Commission published the first draft of the “Strategic Plan” for Horizon Europe which references bio-inspired and bio-integrated manufacturing as well as “enhanced information-based technologies inspired by nature and biology”.