Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation
and Automation IFF

Germany is supposed to become climate-neutral by 2045. The federal government’s new climate protection law stipulates this. Greenhouse gas emissions are supposed to drop at 65 percent below their 1990 values by the year 2030. Many innovative ideas and solutions are needed to implement this ambitious plan. Together with their partners, research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF are making a contribution in the RIGRID project: Its objective is to supply rural areas with power sustainably, cost-effectively and reliably.

The cloud is to become greener. To this end, T-Systems has launched a research project at the Biere data center in Saxony-Anhalt. Together with the Fraunhofer IFF, T-Systems experts are developing measures for more sustainability in the operation of data centers. The long-term goal: a data center that is self-sufficient thanks to an intelligent interplay of renewable generation, storage and flexible consumers. On the one hand, this reduces the load on the power grid. On the other hand, increased self-sufficiency strengthens the resilience of the data center.

Mobile, distributed systems that provide medical care to the public can be a crucial addition to the existing healthcare infrastructure in crises and emergencies such as the current Corona pandemic. Six of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s institutes have joined forces under the lead management of the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg and are developing an integrated system for mobile, distributed medical care in the Demo-medVer project. What makes it special is that all of the complete system’s components are modularized, are closely interconnected, and complement each other. A functional prototype is intended to be built by the end of next year.

Automated assembly operations are a key to success. They enable stable manufacturing, high precision manufacturing and greater responsiveness to market demands. The Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF’s innovative digital instrumentation and information networks are increasing the transparency of aircraft manufacturer Airbus’s manufacturing operations and optimizing collaboration between humans and machines.