Research

The elimination of base load-capable power plants and the increasing electricity demand for heat pumps and e-mobility require a new architecture for the electricity grid.

The traditionally strongly hierarchically structured electricity supply in Germany is facing serious upheavals. The energy transition requires a transition to a new architecture characterized by decentralized energy generation at lower grid levels and the elimination of traditional guarantors of stability in the form of large power plants.

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New process improves aerial wildfire fighting

Fraunhofer EMI and the start-up company CAURUS Technologies GmbH are working together to develop a new type of extinguishing method. It is intended to improve the efficiency of fighting wildfires from the air. 

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TeamAware project: Team Awareness Enhanced with Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in large-scale civil protection operations. This poses a considerable challenge for emergency services, particularly in terms of coordination, response and communication. In the course of international disaster relief, the “TeamAware” project aims to help solve new and known problems in civil protection. It was developed as part of the European research initiative “Horizon2020”. The project involves 22 international partners working together. 

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In several projects, Fraunhofer EMI is researching the vulnerability of buildings and structural infrastructures to flood events in order to identify causes of failure, quantify possible damage probabilities and qualify improvement measures. The overarching goal is to strengthen the resilience of urban structures.

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The hazards emanating from firearms manufactured using 3D printing are manifold. Since the presentation of the first printed plastic weapon in 2013, the manufacturing technology has advanced significantly in addition to increased availability. However, there are only a few well-known scientific studies on this topic. Together with project partner Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), Fraunhofer EMI is investigating some of these threats as part of the BMBF joint project HamsTeR — “Handwaffen mit selbstgedruckten Teilen — eine Risikoabschätzung”.

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Drone carried sensors can help finding victims and the EMI participates with new AI method based data analysis for detecting signs of life.

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How to make future energy supply systems such as LNG tanks more efficient and resilient against natural and man-made hazards?

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The pandemic has shown that complex risks can pose an existential threat to the future of many companies. To be better prepared for the next crisis, Fraunhofer EMI is focusing on resilience as a new extended security concept. With the help of the projects KMU-Lagebild and FReE, companies are supported in measuring their resilience and then in increasing it in order to be prepared for the next crisis. 

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Scientists from the project EFFEKTIF dedicate their research to the stability analysis and error correction of critical infrastructure networks such as, for example, the water and electricity supply or communication networks. Such networks can be modeled as finite, usually coupled systems, but as the size of a network increases, its possible disruptive scenarios become more complex. As a result, it becomes more difficult to solve network problems using real-time simulations.

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In December 1947, part of the approximately 7000 tons of ammunition stored in the underground ammunition depot in Mitholz, Switzerland, exploded, killing nine people. Approximately 3500 tons of remaining ammunition containing several hundred tons of explosives are suspected in the collapsed facility and the rubble cone in front of the installation. 

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Fortunately, fires in underground tunnels are extremely rare, but they are all the more dangerous for the emergency services. Above ground, important information, for example from residents, is available and direct access to the fire site is possible.

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Resilience is the key for enterprises to successfully manage crises, and this is no coincidence: “You can plan them strategically and make them measureable,” says Dr. Alexander Stolz, Head of Safety Technology and Protective Structures. 

He and his team have developed the FReE-Tool with the goal of creating not only a scientific but also a practical application that companies and systems can use for themselves.

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In the two-year German-Austrian project DURCHBLICK led by Fraunhofer EMI and the Austrian AIT, research focused on a robot-assisted, high-performance sensor system for the examination of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). By integrating new technologies, bomb squads will have a better tool to help assess situations of danger. The results were presented at several international events, including the international congress of bomb-disposal (EOD) experts of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in 2018.

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When a bomb attack either was foiled or actually took place, the police authorities must perform a forensic investigation. Among other objectives, this also serves to assess the level of possible damage as evidence in a court hearing. The necessary reconstructions of explosions are time-consuming and expensive. Moreover, prior to major events such as city marathons or Christmas fairs risk analyses are imperative in order to prevent threats and to effectively take protective measures. Read more

The safety of technical systems is often not planned properly: On the one hand, they are extremely robust for foreseeable malfunctions, because partly redundant protection capacities are provided for each respective potential fault.

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The design and architecture of public spaces have a considerable influence on the subjective sense of security for urban dwellers and may even prevent criminality. For the assessment and improvement of this sense of security, you have to identify places that are perceived as dark, out of sight and out of hearing range. In the project Stadtsicherheit-3D (urban security 3D), this is accomplished by a software tool, which is applied to existing three-dimensional city models. Focus was on three case-study areas in Berlin. Read more

The aim of the RESISTO project is the improved resilience of telecommunication infrastructures.

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Bomb disposal squads face a challenging task: Every day, they have to decide very quickly whether a suspicious object is dangerous or not. To do so, robots are important devices. The bilateral project DURCHBLICK wants to make this procedure safer by supplying robots with new detection technologies.

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“Explosives or soap?” – researchers at Fraunhofer EMI work on imaging techniques for the examination of potentially dangerous objects.

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Modern supply networks are highly complex systems that are strongly dependent on other (critical) infrastructure. Disruptions in these networks can result in many diverse effects.

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