Press

It’s almost completely dark in the tunnel. The ground is uneven and slippery in places. A robot slowly makes its way toward a car, across pallets, past crates and tipped-over barrels. Its task: find and “rescue” two dummies and bring them outside. Some hundred meters or so away, Patrick Weiss is focused on remotely controlling the robot’s movements and its overlong gripper arm, while his colleagues Oliver Schulz and Patrik Bylin are glued to their monitors, watching the action unfold in the tunnel. The three of them, all from southern Germany, made up one of 17 teams from all over the world who entered the 12th European Land Robot Trial (ELROB), held on the grounds of Bundeswehr Technical Center for Land-Based Vehicle Systems, Engineer and General Field Equipment (WTD 41) in Trier in late June. Across five challenging disciplines with a military focus, the competitors tested their robotic systems to see how they would perform in real-world settings — and the results were mixed.

Preparation is almost complete, all the scenarios have been planned and the tasks have been finalised: From 24–28 June this year, the elite of military robotics will gather for the 12th European Land Robot Trial (ELROB), which will take place in Trier, Germany for the first time.

Locked Shields is the largest NATO cybersecurity exercise and is currently bringing together IT experts from across the globe. During the exercise, cyberattacks are mounted on simulated computer networks and IT systems of critical infrastructures in real time. Multinational teams comprising military and civilian IT experts and administrators are tasked with fighting off these attacks. Around 3,500 participants from 32 NATO countries — the highest number ever — have risen to this year’s complex challenge, which runs until 26 April. These include researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE, which is based in Bonn.

When communication in tactical settings needs to be made secure in highly sensitive and continuously changing environments, how can it be improved? This is the question that has been engaging scientists Johannes Loevenich and Dr Roberto Rigolin F. Lopes. Their work on it has been a success: The European Defence Agency (EDA) has presented the two former Fraunhofer FKIE employees, who now work at Thales Germany, with the "EDA Research, Technology, and Innovation Papers Award 2023" for their newly developed method for solving complex optimisation problems in modern tactical communication systems.

The German Army Headquarters (KdoH) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE are intensifying their cooperation. The Chief of the German Army, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, and institute director Professor Peter Martini signed a cooperation agreement at the FKIE office in Wachtberg, Germany. The partners concluded the agreement in pursuit of a common goal – the continual and, especially, rapid development of new potential and technology for the armed forces.

Only just under a third of those working in science worldwide are women. Particularly in the so-called MINT subjects - mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology - men are still clearly in the majority, both at university and in the professional world. On the "International Day of Girls and Women in Science" on 11 February, female researchers from the Fraunhofer FKIE will report on their experiences.

More success for the Fraunhofer FKIE scientists in Wachtberg: The NLytics system was declared the winner of the newest shared-task competition CLAIMSCAN 2023, organized by the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The system is the result of a joint research project in collaboration with the University of the Bundeswehr Munich and aims to detect propaganda and misinformation campaigns on social media using AI.

After being selected by the European Commission under the European Defence Fund (EDF2022), the SWArm and Teaming operation of manned & unmanned underwater vehicle SHOAL (SWAT-SHOAL) project has held its kick-off meeting on January 9th and 10th, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. SWAT-SHOAL is a research project coordinated by Navantia and will last 36 months.

Real missions in real deployment scenarios are one of many features of the European Land Robot Trial (ELROB), being held in 2024 for the twelfth time. Military roboticists from all over the world will meet from June 24 to 28 at the German Armed Forces’ Technical Center for Land-Based Vehicle Systems, Engineer and General Field Equipment in Trier. Over the five days, up to 15 teams working in a number of different disciplines will take their marks to examine the current performance levels of their robotic systems and compare the different technical solutions. This major event is once again being organized in 2024 by the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE in Wachtberg.

When a natural disaster such as an earthquake occurs, every minute counts. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are often used to assist the search for survivors as they can provide an initial overview of difficult-to-reach areas and help to detect victims — provided they are visible. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE are now looking to close a gap in the provision of disaster management services with a new technology: In the future, drones equipped with microphone arrays will be able to precisely locate cries for help and other acoustic signals from victims from the air and supply information about their location to the rescue teams. This significantly increases the chances of a rapid rescue for victims who cannot be spotted by camera.