Press Releases Topics

AI, ML - these letters stand for a new era of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and microelectronic systems that enhance many areas and applica-tions  ̶  including embedded systems.

At WindEnergy 2022 in Hamburg, institutes of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence for Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT will demonstrate how sustainable energy can even be efficiently and sustainably monitored and maintained. 

Robust transmission of sensor data for condition monitoring and smart metering – this is what recommends the wireless and standardized transmission technology mioty from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS for applications in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). But it can do even more: it enables hundreds of thousands of sensors to be connected via just one base station. This is a huge advantage, especially in the smart city and smart building sectors with many end devices. Using mioty, 3.5 million messages per base station can be read out and transmitted per day.

The standardized Fraunhofer mioty protocol stack for Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) and IoT applications is implemented and tested in the newly introduced wireless bidirectional sub-GHZ SoC (System on Chip) Series 2 platform EFR32FG23 (FG23) from Silicon Labs. 

The Fraunhofer Institutes IIS and IAF together with the University of Freiburg/INATECH win second place with their joint project “EdgeLimit – Evaluation of Power Electronics in Modern Edge Cloud Systems” in the innovation competition “Electronics for Energy-Saving Information and Communications Technology” launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project consortium is funded by the BMBF to realize their solution for energy-saving mobile radio base stations.

The networking of objects in the Internet of Things — or IoT for short — is becoming increasingly important, and demand for connected IoT devices is growing rapidly everywhere, from consumers to Industry 4.0. But until now, no suitable and reliable method of communication has been available for transferring many thousands of data packages at the same time. A team of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen/Nuernberg has now overcome this challenge with the newly developed, ready-for-market mioty® wireless low-power wide-area transmission system. The team receives the Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize, which is awarded to employees of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for their outstanding scientific achievements in solving application-related problems.

What do localization and networking have in common with the Internet of Things? Both technologies are the basis for interactive and self-sufficient Industry 4.0 processes and smart mobility applications. A self-calibrating localization system allows flexible processes, tools, driverless transport systems, assembly systems etc. set-up, re-design and adapt to new work processes easily and in real time -  in the production hall as well as outdoors.

Loose screws at important connection points are a considerable safety risk. The Research Center IoT-COMMs – part of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT – has developed a smart screw connection that enables wireless, self-powered monitoring. A thin-film sensor measures force effects on the screw connection as well as changes in the ambient temperature at the installation site. The screw regularly transmits load data via the standardized mioty® wireless protocol for monitoring purposes. The aim is to implement a self-powered approach to the permanent long-term monitoring of structures such as bridges, scaffolding and wind power plants. The solution will be presented for at the SPS Connect.

The new LoPAN wireless technology from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS paves the way for numerous practical applications, such as connecting temperature sensors to an air-conditioning system to reduce energy costs and simultaneously or selectively monitoring and controlling numerous blinds, postboxes, and heating systems over a remote connection. This technology links up and networks any number of sensors via a single base station. Unlike conventional remote maintenance and control applications for smart homes and smart buildings, LoPAN brings together advantages such as high energy efficiency, broadcast communication, a long range of several kilometers, and highly robust and therefore reliable transmission of the required sensor data – even in the vicinity of coexisting wireless protocols or in challenging environmental conditions.

Police, customs, fire brigades, critical infrastructure – they all increasingly depend on satellite navigation. But satnav is easy to disrupt and manipulate. A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has found a fix for this security predicament. Robust, trustworthy and tamper-proof – with this solution the team receives one of four Joseph von Fraunho-fer Prizes 2020, each endowed with 50,000 euros.

Germany has launched its own Coronavirus Warning App on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. Released by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), following development by SAP SE and Deutsche Telekom AG, the new app could prove a key digital component in the fight to control and contain the current coronavirus pandemic. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft continues to be closely involved in technical aspects of the project – in particular, key components used to estimate physical distance by means of the exposure notification API (application programming interface).

At the embedded world 2020 the mioty alliance was introduced to a large audience of leading companies from research & industry, such as Texas Instruments, Fraunhofer-Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, and Diehl Metering. Since then the alliance has registered an ever-growing number of enterprises that have decided to join. The mioty joint patent licensing program has been organized by Sisvel International S.A. to make mioty technology available for innovative LPWAN applications in various areas like Industrial IoT, Smart City or in smart buildings. The new Fraunhofer IIS features for robust, reliable and energy-efficient solutions, like Energy Harvesting, provide an attractive technology pool to boost massive IoT applications.

When merging and overtaking in complex traffic situations, drivers must pay extreme attention. A lapse in concentration can sometimes lead to accidents – something that automated driving assistance systems work to prevent. The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, together with its project partners RISE, Scania, Waysure, Ceit-IK4, Baselabs and Commsignia, has made another successful step towards autonomous driving as part of an EU-funded project PRoPART. On a test track in Sweden, automotive industry experts were able to see how well the automated merging solution performed in an impressive live demonstration with a truck.