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Control from the cloud *** Understanding production at a glance *** Passenger exchange without loss of time

Control from the cloud

The car has evolved in recent years into a moving computer: Software now controls all the components of a vehicle – from air conditioning and communication and consumer electronics to driver assistance systems. In the future, the vehicles themselves are expected to communicate with each other, thereby helping to avoid accidents. A new approach is the networking of vehicles over the Internet in a cloud.

In collaboration with an automotive supplier, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE in Kaiserslautern, Germany, are currently investigating, through a feasibility study, how cloud solutions can be employed to expand and enhance the existing functionality of automotive electronics. The Kaiserslautern researchers are developing suitable software architecture and testing it in real-life scenarios on a model vehicle. It is crucial that the interaction between vehicle and external server work smoothly and that control commands be transmitted to the vehicle reliably and quickly. The greatest advantage of such cloud-based IT services is their flexible use. As a result, vehicle functions can be used by the customer for a fixed period of time as needed – such as cruise control for the long drive during summer vacations. There are also advantages for the manufacturer: In the case of product recalls, for example, affected vehicle owners could be informed more quickly and reliably.

Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE  
Fraunhofer-Platz 1 | 67663 Kaiserslautern | www.iese.fraunhofer.de
Contact: Dr. Jens Knodel | Phone +49 631 6800-2168 | jens.knodel@iese.fraunhofer.de
Press: Nicole Spanier-Baro | Phone +49 631 6800-1002 | nicole.spanier-baro@iese.fraunhofer.de



Understanding production at a glance

In large production halls, many machines rattle along all at the same time – so it’s hard to keep track. What projects are running on which equipment? Where have there been stoppages? Until now, factory operators have had to gather such information laboriously by hand, since this is usually collected in different systems. The clarity also leaves something to be desired, since the data are typically represented as a table or bar graph.

In the future, a single glance will be enough to be aware of the state of affairs – for the entire production hall. The basis for this is the “Plant@Hand3D” system. It automatically extracts all the relevant information, bundles it and displays it on a multitouch table. There, the user sees a three-dimensional virtual representation of the entire factory floor, including all the machines. He or she, for example, can identify which orders are currently being processed on the various systems. Even more detailed controls are available: a user who wishes to look at data for just a single machine can zoom in on the image for that machine. Additional monitors clearly show the selected values. The new system has been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD in Rostock, Germany, and the prototype has already been completed.

Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD
Joachim-Jungius-Straße 11 | 18059 Rostock | www.igd.fraunhofer.de
Contact: Dr.-Ing. Jörg Voskamp | Phone +49 381 4024 120 | joerg.voskamp@igd-r.fraunhofer.de
Press: Dr. Konrad Baier | Phone +49 6151 155-146 | konrad.baier@igd.fraunhofer.de



Passenger exchange without loss of time

Almost everyone is familiar with the situation: During morning rush-hour traffic, crowds are waiting in front of the subway doors while alighting passengers are forcing their way through. Quite often, jostling on the platform and in the train leads to delays.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany, have now developed simulation software to tackle the topic of passenger exchange. With this software, it can be analyzed in which ways various factors affect the time needed for boarding and alighting. In order to illustrate individual passenger movements as realistically as possible, the researchers use an agent-based model. Each agent – in the virtual model, this is the passenger – is assigned an individual movement behavior. Even general conditions such as the width of doors, the arrangement of seats and the number of passengers can be specified for each run. Due to the great variability of the simulation parameters, different scenarios can be played through. Based on their calculations, the researchers have managed to identify, depen-
ding on the size of the bus, a critical number of passengers beyond which the time for the passenger exchange increases disproportionately. To resolve these »bottlenecks«, it can be useful to design the interior of the vehicle differently. In doing so, the simulation proves to be an important development tool in evaluating potential modifications in terms of practicability.

Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI
Zeunerstraße 38 | 01069 Dresden | www.ivi.fraunhofer.de
Contact: Dr. Ulrich Potthoff | Phone +49 351 4640 638 | ulrich.potthoff@ivi.fraunhofer.de
Press: Elke Sähn | Phone +49 351 4640 612 | elke.saehn@ivi.fraunhofer.de