One site of Fraunhofer IOSB is located in Ettlingen, near Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg.
In the five departments Laser Technology, Object Recognition, Optronics, Signatorics and Scene Analysis, fundamental investigations are carried out in the fields of warning sensor technology, evaluation and interpretation of image sequences, laser sources and laser application. Based on this, concepts, procedures and systems are developed which enable the institute to contribute its competence in analysis and evaluation in the field of defense technology..
In the last two decades, a great political and social change has taken place in our country. This is also reflected in the work of the Institute in the form of an opening for civil applications. As a result of its work, the Ettlingen location has a large number of state-of-the-art equipment from the electro-optical field at its disposal. For example, the institute uses a wide variety of cameras covering the entire wavelength range from ultraviolet to long-wave infrared.
Together with the professional competence of the employees, these devices are also repeatedly borrowed from external parties (e.g. industry) within the scope of measurement campaigns. With its approx. 200 employees (as of 2018), the Ettlingen site also has the opportunity to tackle larger and longer-term projects. International cooperation is strengthened by collaborations with renowned research institutions abroad. The Fraunhofer IOSB, formerly FOM, has been able to successfully incorporate many of the scientific results into innovative developments in industry and accompany them until they are ready for application.
The Karlsruhe metropolitan area with its attractive research landscape offers the necessary environment for scientific exchange beyond one's own areas of responsibility. Within this framework, diploma and doctoral theses are also awarded at the Ettlingen location, and teaching positions are held by scientists.