TU Chemnitz, TU Dresden, HTW Dresden and Fraunhofer IWU are jointly in the final of the Future Clusters Initiative (Clusters4Future) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. With their research and innovation strategy, they are competing for funding of 45 million euros. The researchers' goal: Humans and robots working more closely together to increase the competitiveness of craft and industry.

Does the skilled trades need robots? Yes, say researchers from the three Saxon universities Technische Universität Chemnitz, Technische Universität Dresden and Dresden University of Applied Sciences, as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU. Their vision: "Smart robotics for time-flexible, immersive and location-independent teamwork in trade and industry", in short: SmaRTHI. This will make possible, for example, individual furniture production by remote-controlled milling robots that listen to voice commands - or the control and maintenance of production plants by multi-legged robots from the home office.

To make this vision of the future a reality, the collaborative partners applied for funding from the Future Clusters Initiative (Clusters4Future) of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). In May of this year, their proposal was among the 15 finalists. Now they will receive EUR 230,000 from the Future Cluster for a period of six months to develop a research and innovation strategy. This strategy will include plans for projects to develop smart robotics. If the cluster is successful with its strategy, it can receive funding of up to EUR 45 million for nine years.

Transfer to SMEs - strengthening the business location

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrike Thomas from the Chair of Robotics and Human-Technology Interaction at Chemnitz University of Technology is coordinating the application. Together with the researchers in the network, she wants to increase the competitiveness of Saxony as a business location: "We are pleased to be able to develop the cluster strategy in order to further develop and transfer excellent research in the field of robotics, which we have not only through the Collaborative Research Center 'Hybrid Societies' in Chemnitz and the Cluster of Excellence 'Tactile Internet' in Dresden. We want to have teams of humans and robots working side by side in industry and crafts. To do this, we need to develop new cutting-edge technologies and transfer them to medium-sized industry. This should establish the region as one of the leading international clusters for robotics and its applications."

With "SmaRTHI", robots and humans are to work together as time-flexible and location-independent teams. In this way, better working conditions can be created, humans can be protected in their manual activities, participation in the labor market can be democratized and overall social prosperity can be increased. The new technologies can also counteract the shortage of skilled workers in the skilled trades.

If the Future Cluster is approved, innovations in the field of smart robotics will emerge from excellent research and be opened up for widespread use in the skilled trades and industry. Thus, impulses for change and innovation will be set by collaborative human-robotics teams in manufacturing and automation. The "SmaRTHI" cluster will focus in particular on automation, artificial intelligence (AI), sensor technology, human-robot collaboration, system integration, and the integration of artificial reality and virtual reality solutions (AR and VR). To test these new approaches, the cluster has access to testbeds at the "5G Lab Germany" of TU Dresden and the "IIoT Testbed" of HTW Dresden, among others. In the field of cyber-physical production systems, the Fraunhofer IWU also has a 1,700 m² E³ research factory for industry-oriented testing of complex robot systems, including a human-meets-robot lab, a mobile robot cell for autonomous machine operation, and software and hardware infrastructure for testing virtual commissioning. Humanoid robots are being developed at the TU Chemnitz and will also be used.

"SmaRTHI" is supported by a large number of regional start-ups, SMEs and large companies, e.g. Wandelbots GmbH, Industrie Partner GmbH Coswig, Infineon Technologies Dresden GmbH, Siemens AG Chemnitz, Volkswagen Software Development Center Dresden, X-Fab Dresden GmbH, Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH, EPL Deutschland GmbH, Porsche Leipzig GmbH, BMW Group Werk Leipzig, TRUMPF Sachsen GmbH and Koenig & Bauer GmbH.

Current information on the research network can be found here on the web: https://www.smarthi.de/

Background: Cluster4Future

The clusters of the future (Cluster4Future) are the core component of the German government's High-Tech Strategy 2025 and are intended to make a special contribution to excellent research and knowledge and technology transfer. With the regional approach of cluster funding, they link directly to cutting-edge research in important future fields and thus ensure that technological as well as social innovations reach everyday life more quickly and, with the help of excellent research, create locations with high innovation within Germany.

Mehr zu den Zukunftsclustern erfahren Sie im Web auf den Seiten des BMBF: https://www.clusters4future.de/

The core team of the research network:
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrike Thomas, Tel.: 0371 531-31648,
E-mail:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Uwe Aßmann, Tel.: 0351 463-38463
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Ihlenfeldt, Tel.: 49 0351 463-34358
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. Frank Fitzek, Tel.: 0351 463-33942
Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Dirk Reichelt, Tel.: 0351 462 2614

Coordination - Chair of Robotics and Human Machine Interaction:
Frank Peters, Tel.: 0371 531-39084, E-Mail: frank.peters@etit.tu-chemnitz.de