Institutes or departments of institutes with different competences cooperate in Fraunhofer alliances to jointly process and market a business field. Fraunhofer IGD competence centers have been working closely together with other Fraunhofer institutes in the »Ambient Assisted Living«, »Big Data«, »Embedded Systems«, »Additive Manufacturing«, and »Numerical Simulation of Products, Processes« Fraunhofer Alliances.
Ambient Assisted Living
Research into Ambient Assisted Living aims primarily to enable the elderly to lead independent lives in their own homes, and to assist people with special needs. Solutions are based on intelligent environments that adapt autonomously, proactively and context-sensitively to the users’ needs and the tasks they wish to perform, helping them to carry out the necessary actions.
The Fraunhofer Network »Ambient Assisted Living« was set up by a group of six Fraunhofer Institutes to market complete solutions in this area. The solutions offered include a variety of functions to improve the user’s comfort at home and work, or to facilitate social care at home and in nursing homes, and the provision of mobile services.
Another focus is that of rehabilitation, preventive healthcare, and solutions to preserve the independence of persons requiring medical care, daily assistance, or help to overcome physical disabilities.
The Network pursues an approach based on a common system platform which permits seamless integration of diverse solutions and accommodates the evolution of ambient intelligence (AmI) technologies such as communications, power supplies, sensors and actuators. This approach results in smart products that are mutually compatible, suitable for mobile applications, and can be integrated in other types of network on an ad-hoc basis.
Big Data
Big Data is the term used to describe large volumes of all kinds of data that accumulates rapidly: every day, all over the world, in companies and urban infrastructures, on the web and even in private households. According to forecasts, the volume doubles every two years. Processing and analyzing these vast volumes of data is a key technology for high-tech countries. Worldwide, companies expect Big Data will secure strategic competitive advantages as well as boost turnover and productivity.
The Fraunhofer Big Data Alliance provides support from a single source across all sectors and areas of business. Using their many years of experience in analyzing large volumes of data, the individual Fraunhofer Institutes help companies build expertise and to work up solutions that can then be applied to traditional business processes, production and logistics, and also to research and product development. We place feasibility and profitability on equal footing with data protection and security.
Embedded Systems
Complex technological products generally contain embedded systems: computers that monitor, regulate and control various functions. Embedded systems are very much at the heart of high-tech devices in the automotive industry, in mechanical and plant engineering, in medical technology or in home electronics.
The complexity and capabilities of these systems have grown to such an extent in the course of their technological development that they are now beyond the competencies of any one field. In response, Fraunhofer has created the Embedded Systems Alliance, bringing together the expertise of those Fraunhofer Institutes whose combined competencies in the fields of information technology, electronics and engineering cover the entire spectrum of embedded systems.
Additive Manufacturing
Rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing offer tremendous potential for success in terms of quickly and efficiently translating product innovations into prototypes and small production batches.
The Fraunhofer Additive Manufacturing Alliance has earned a reputation as the largest interdisciplinary European alliance of competence for high-speed processes enabling individual manufacturing of products made of metals, plastics, ceramics and other materials.
Collaborating closely with national and international partners, the alliance develops new rapid strategies, concepts, technologies and processes to enhance the performance and competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. Its advanced rapid methods and tools enable it to support all major sectors of industry: p.e. the automotive and aerospace industries, mechanical engineering and machine tools, medicine and medical engineering.
Numerical Simulation of Products, Processes
In the Fraunhofer Alliance for Numerical Simulation of Products and Processes, twenty institutes pool their expertise in the development and improvement of simulation techniques.
The simulation of products and processes today plays a decisive role in all phases of the product life cycle, from model-based materials development and simulation of manufacturing processes to operating characteristics and product placement on the market.
The object of the alliance is to address institute-overarching issues and to represent the interests of the member institutes as a central point of contact for public-sector and industrial customers. In particular, the pooling of expertise from the I&C sector with materials and components know-how as well as with surface technology and production engineering promises to yield innovative results.
Fraunhofer Numerical Simulation of Products, Processes Alliance