Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

Being able to reliably and safely control and regulate highly dynamic production systems still appears to be a challenge for many companies. Edge and cloud systems are gaining in importance, but even today there is still a lack of appropriate equipment and infrastructure to permanently integrate existing machines and plants into digital IT landscapes in accordance with the necessary industrial requirements. To this end, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen, together with partners from mechanical engineering, network technology and robotics, is now developing an end-to-end real-time-capable communication infrastructure based on 5G mobile technology and the Time Sensitive Networking (TSN).

The treatment of cancer with new, individualized cell therapies is usually very costly and lengthy. Before treatment can take place, patients often have to wait a long time for individualized therapeutics to be produced and they lose valuable time. In the EU project AIDPATH, researchers are now developing a facility for the production of so-called CAR-T cells that is capable of integrating patient-related data and biomarkers into the therapy process via artificial intelligence. The CAR-T cells are produced close to the patient, directly in the hospital. In the future, this will make it possible to provide cancer patients with treatment tailored to their needs and much more quickly.

Complex production processes in highly flexible and networked manufacturing systems require all processes and distributed systems to be able to exchange their data extremely reliably and with only short delay times. For this so-called "Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication" (URLLC), the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a worldwide cooperation for the standardization of mobile communication technologies, is developing a new standard for future 5G products. The Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Technology IPT and the Swedish mobile communications supplier Ericsson are now testing the envisaged URLLC functions in Aachen using a real production scenario for collision control in machine tools.

Even in the “Corona Year” the international toolmaking industry does not give in and proves to be resilient to the crisis: Harting Applied Technologies GmbH from Espelkamp in Westphalia, Germany, won the “Excellence in Production” award this year and is thus awarded the title “Toolmaker of the Year 2020”.