Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT
Research project "EVOLOPRO"
The aim of the Fraunhofer lead project "EVOLOPRO" is to develop a "Biological Manufacturing System", a production system that takes into account biological principles of evolutionary development. Within the research focus "Biological Transformation" of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the EVOLOPRO project is thus an important building block that complements the already existing research activities in this field by transferring biological adaptation mechanisms to production systems.
Biological Manufacturing Systems are equipped with the ability to adapt to new requirements and conditions, just like biological organisms. In doing so, they apply a special strategy of nature: They do not regard manufacturing errors as worthless rejects, but as a valuable source of data that provides important information for adaptation and further development.
To realize this evolution in production technology, the project partners are relying, on the one hand, on novel algorithms modeled on biology and, on the other, on data-based digital twins that interact with a digital environment.
The project was selected as one of three out of a total of 18 project proposals and is being funded by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with a total of eight million euros from January 2019 over a period of four years.
Contributing Institutes
- Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT (Coordinator)
- Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF
- Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS
- Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU
- Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT
- Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI