Our projects: Recognizing what matters tomorrow.

Drive 4.0 is researching common standards and interoperable solutions for electric drives. A shared data space is the basis for the development of service-oriented business models around digitalized production and networked value chains. The aim is to achieve cross-manufacturer compatibility for the selection, commissioning, operation and service of drives. The close integration with industry ensures economic and ecological added value and offers significant competitive advantages, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The research project is co-funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) and financed by the European Union.

Developing and operating fully connected buildings requires a platform that can ensure a digital infrastructure, consistent concepts and methods, and close collaboration between manufacturers, service providers, associations, and academia. This is precisely what ForeSight offers: a platform consisting of the ForeSight Dataspace, the ForeSight Toolbox, and the ForeSight Community. These three elements enable the digitalization of existing and new buildings based on a secure, Gaia-X-compliant infrastructure, generally accepted, ethically sound AI and machine learning methods, and cross-industry, vendor-neutral, and coordinated collaboration between 74 organizations.

SECAI is developing an edge-cloud-based AI system for decentralized heating control to optimize the energy requirements of buildings. SECAI’s AI derives control measures from environmental and weather data, as well as user behavior. Tenants receive recommendations for action, and operators receive heating plans for building complexes. SECAI can also be used in existing buildings. The research project can reduce the need for fossil fuels and the associated CO₂ emissions. SECAI is one of ten projects in the “Edge Data Economy” technology program funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).

The goal of SENSE was to enable service developers to develop interoperable smart home solutions, applications, and services as easily as possible, without the traditional integration of a multitude of manufacturer- and system-specific interfaces and special features. To this end, the WoT (Web of Things) model was further developed into SENSE-WoT. This allows for the more comprehensive integration of additional requirements, for example, from necessary context information (locations). SENSE also created an open Semantic Building Lab in Berlin for the collaborative testing of new cross-disciplinary services with semantic interfaces in the IoT.

SmartLivingNEXT is creating an AI-based ecosystem for the smart living domain. At its core is a secure access point to all relevant data in residential buildings. Its open and lean structure simplifies the development of intelligent smart living services and makes them more sustainable. The data ecosystem allows for the integration and combination of proven digital technologies already used in residential buildings.

The project’s semantic dataspace concept leaves data in its original environment and provides the SmartLivingNEXT community with AI-supported basic services for data analysis, forecasting, and pattern recognition. The necessary catalogs, tools, and connectors are provided by the lead project ForeSightNEXT.

Six other SmartLivingNEXT projects are conducting parallel research into the implementation of specific use cases, primarily in the areas of energy and assistance. SmartLivingNEXT is a funding call conducted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) based on the “Development of Digital Technologies” funding program.

Factory-X lays the foundation for data sharing by building a new data infrastructure that enables secure data sharing without compromising data sovereignty. This infrastructure ensures interoperability between different sectors, such as the automotive industry, industrial manufacturing, and aerospace, and supports data monetization. The project pursues a use-case-oriented approach with eleven defined use cases to develop, validate, and communicate business applications in Europe and worldwide. This initiative is an important step towards comprehensive digitalization, enabling companies to collaborate across their entire supply network and drive innovation in the manufacturing sector.