Projects and products

The SAPHARI project aims to enable active and safe workspace sharing between humans and robots. All essential aspects of safe, intuitive physical interaction between humans and complex, human-like robotic systems are addressed. While encompassing safety issues based on biomechanical analysis, human-friendly hardware design, and interaction control strategies, the project will develop and validate perceptive and cognitive key components that enable robots to track, understand and predict human motions in a weakly structured dynamic environment in real-time.

The project "Hyperspectral Oil Leak Detection HYPOD" aims to acquire both geometrically high-resolution optical image data and spectrally high-resolution (hyperspectral) aerial images by means of a sensor flight platform. Automated, sensor-based evaluation in real time is intended to ensure early and reliable detection of leaks, supporting or even replacing purely visual and thus error-prone evaluation.

"blackValue" is a strategic, business-oriented research project of several Fraunhofer Institutes.

The manufacturing process of wood-based panels consists of a large number of processing steps, from chipping the logs to gluing the chips to compacting and curing the chip mixture in the continuous press.

"Open62541" is the only open implementation of OPC UA, the world language of machine-to-machine communication, programmed entirely in C.

Cost-effective modular quality and process control: The intelligent spectrometer system "SmartSpectrometer" enables the monitoring of quality-relevant material parameters in real time.

The Common Learning Middleware (CLM) makes it possible to combine different teaching/learning technologies in a common infrastructure.

Complex reconnaissance and surveillance tasks often cannot be solved with stationary sensors alone or with just one mobile sensor carrier (e.g., a drone). If several mobile systems are used simultaneously in a scenario, conventional individual applications quickly reach their limits.

Serious game development is complex, especially when following the ideas of digital game-based learning. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Communication with professional game developers can be difficult, not only because of the frequent change of personnel.

MODAPTO aims to develop a toolkit for modular production using interoperable digital twins and distributed & collective intelligence.

Waste wood recovery from bulky waste using Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing in the VIS, IR and Terahertz Range

In the "InnoTeer" project, the Fraunhofer Institutes IBP, IML, IOSB and UMSICHT are now developing a multistage process to efficiently process tar-containing road debris in decentralized plants, because about 3.3 million tons of tar-containing road debris are produced in Germany every year: Two million tons of it end up in landfills.

Digitalization in the value network: The project aims to achieve near-natural and environmentally friendly viticulture while saving resources and costs – in other words, sustainability and increasing labor efficiency.

The COGNAC project is about helping agriculture to become more sustainable and efficient.

For several years, modern ultra-short pulse laser systems have made it possible to directly investigate and use special nonlinear effects in air.

The deflectometric measurement method uses specular reflection: mirror images of known patterns in the surface and their deformations are observed to automate the quality inspection of painted car body parts, for example.

»ViSAR« is an interactive simulator for the visualisation of geometric SAR effects. The user can generate simple 3D models and combine them to complex scenes. For these scenes radar shadows, layover effects and multiple reflections from different angles of a radar sensor can be calculated and displayed.

Concepts and procedures for the robust localization and navigation of underwater vehicles and for the realization of the planned inspection and exploration capabilities are developed.

Sorting systems are used for the control and quality assurance of food. Our multispectral workbench enables objects to be accurately examined in the entire wavelength range from ultraviolet (UV) to visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR). This is how we find the "fingerprint" that enables reliable machine sorting.

Making aircraft more fuel-efficient is one of the aviation industry's most important goals. To this end, Lufthansa Technik uses AeroSHARK, a technology inspired by shark skin, which significantly reduces frictional drag and thus emissions. To attach the coating optimally, however, it is necessary to conduct flow simulations, which take the actual wing shape during flight into account. Measuring this is a challenge - and a specialty of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB. This was demonstrated during successful measurement flights by Lufthansa Technik.