Review of the Year
An electronic Christmas card from Dresden? "Finding and shaping new paths" - this motto describes the DNA of the chair: saving resources and at the same time using the opportunity to briefly look at what we achieved together with you in 2021.
A key motivation of the research at the Chair of Process Control Systems, the Process Systems Engineering Group and the Process-to-Order Lab (P2O) are selected UN Sustainability Development Goals. At the two graduate colleges "Conducive Design of Cyber-Physical Production Systems" and "Mobility in Transition", workspaces for operators in future cyber-physical modular production systems are designed and sustainable energy and mobility concepts are developed. By specifying the task profile of operators with several expert studies, we have laid the foundations for the development of qualification strategies.
In addition the design of workspaces, sustainable process chains are being investigated in the projects ProRegional for biowaxes and H2Giga eModules for green hydrogen. After piloting a modular power-to-X plant, we are set to build a H2 process chain in the P2O-Lab. The P2O-Lab is the experimental field for modular automation and serves as a crystallization seed for practical issues and a test bed for innovative concepts. By expanding our module pool to more than ten modules, we are able to set up complex process chains. This will be used to test flexible safety strategies for modular plants as well as the extension of the MTP standard to include safety and simulation aspects. This work and, the middleware and architecture concepts developed in SNIFFBOT and fast semantics are significant steps towards smart equipment including digital twins and hybrid models. The KEEN and EcoKI projects focus on the application of AI for efficient resource and energy use. Our focal point in KEEN is the recognition of complex process states and the evaluation of sensor systems. In EcoKI, an AI platform concept for SMEs for energy-efficient production is being developed.
We have disseminated the results generated in the projects with more than 20 publications and contributions to the standardization of interfaces (VDI VDE NAMUR 2658) and processes (VDI 2776) for modular production. In addition, we pass on what we have learned with you to our students in order to equip the engineers of tomorrow with the necessary tools.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and good health! We would like to thank you for the excellent and trustful cooperation in 2021 and we are looking forward to discovering and treading new paths together with you in the new year.