Was there life on Mars? The European Space Agency (ESA) is setting out to answer with its ExoMars mission. The mission, in which Russia is a participant, is scheduled to launch this fall, although recent political developments have raised questions as to whether this will be possible. Part of the mission is an exciting analytical system that was designed to operate in space and was created as part of the research work conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF.

Artificial intelligence is regularly applied in areas such as image analysis and speech recognition. However, in the industrial production sector its potential is still scarcely used. Several Fraunhofer institutes have recently developed a solution as part of the lighthouse project “ML4P — Machine Learning for Production”, which aims to make industrial manufacturing much more efficient through the use of machine learning. The software suite is very flexible and can be easily applied in existing production processes.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS offers ready-made, platform-independent IP core modules. With IP modules, developers can quickly adopt complete functional areas in standard products such as SoCs, microcontrollers, FPGAs and ASICs.

Together with 24 German research institutions and companies, the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS is working on a quantum computer with improved error rates in the collaborative project QSolid coordinated by Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Large-scale construction projects usually involve extensive coordination. In practice, however, the way in which information is exchanged between construction stakeholders often ends up being an inconsistent multistep process. Now, a consortium project under the technical and scientific leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE is working on a digital solution in the form of the Infra-Bau 4.0 platform, which establishes a network that takes in every stakeholder in an infrastructure project.

Methanol reformers convert easy-to-transport methanol into hydrogen. But conventional reformers still come with a number of drawbacks – catalyst attrition, to name but one example. An innovative methanol reformer for mobile applications from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM is able to overcome these challenges.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB, researchers in the institute branch for industrial automation INA in Lemgo are using artificial intelligence for smart traffic light control as part of the “KI4LSA” and “KI4PED” projects. In the future, self-learning algorithms combined with new sensors should ensure better traffic flow and shorter waiting times, while providing improved safety for pedestrians at crossings.

Nano- and microstructures can now be incorporated into surfaces in an instant using lasers. The technology is being developed and marketed by the Dresden-based start-up Fusion Bionic, a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS. The possibilities are virtually endless when it comes to laser structuring. It has the advantage of being fast and much more versatile than coatings.

In the Fraunhofer lighthouse project NeurOSmart, Fraunhofer IPMS together with four other institutes (ISIT, IMS, IWU, IAIS) under the leadership of Fraunhofer ISIT are jointly researching particularly energy-efficient and intelligent sensors for the next generation of autonomous systems. In the process, the bridges between perception and information processing are being redefined by innovative electronics.

Geothermal systems are becoming an increasingly important source of clean and, above all, baseload-capable energy. But the wells, which can be several thousand meters deep, are risky, and things can sometimes go wrong. Fraunhofer scientists have now developed an innovative tool that enables additional branches to be drilled off of the main well. This decreases the risk of dry boreholes and improves the output.