Innovation in the automotive industry is of pivotal importance for European´s prosperity. OSEM-EV will provide solutions for better autonomy and predictable range to address today´s car buyers concern about electro mobility. Just increasing the battery capacity is not a viable option because the expectation is to have a familiar level of comfort and safe, eco and human oriented mobility at affordable costs. OSEM-EV will translate the foreseen project innovations into a customer value proposition. The highest priority is improved mileage and predictable range without adding further cost and weight. The negative impact of high and low ambient temperatures will be limited. Cars autonomy will be increased due to a reduction of at least 50% of energy used for passenger comfort and at least 30% for component cooling in extreme conditions compared to current FEVs. The consortium will focus on thermal and coupled electro-thermal energy substitution and harvesting and smart energy usage for cooling and heating of the passenger compartment and in-car infrastructure. OSEM-EV goes for novel electro-thermal architectures and control algorithms including thermal insulation, thermal storage, innovative heating and cooling approaches applied to the powertrain (battery, inverter and motor), battery life duration enhancement as a side effect of thermal management, electronic control of energy and power flows, energy efficiency of electrified accessories, energy substitution and harvesting functions. The consortium will take a radical approach, which does not only rely on improving the efficiency of subsystems but also focuses on their interoperability. By creating an electro-thermal network, most of the energy shall be reutilized, no matter if stored in mechanical, electrical or thermal form.

DrugCer proposes a paradigm shift in drug delivery for bone restoration by making drugs an inherent part of a biodegradable ceramic implant. Such a new approach would require drug loading during ceramic sintering, which in turn requires multidisciplinary research and development of low-temperature/cold ceramic processing. Accordingly, the main research goal of DrugCer is to apply a novel pressure-assisted “Cold Sintering Process” (CSP) for co-sintering of biodegradable ceramics with drugs. To achieve the goal, the researcher will receive advanced training in CSP and develop the co-sintering process by establishing a relationship between the processing parameters and properties of the resulting bioceramics. She will train in and master cryo-focused ion beam milling and cryo-scanning transmission electron microscopy to investigate the process kinetics and densification mechanisms. Finally, she will train in and develop methods for complex shaping to adapt the method for potential translation to preclinical studies. Cold-sintering will decrease energy consumption in bioceramics’ fabrication. It will also enable bioceramic co-sintering with other temperature-sensitive materials (e.g., polymers), opening paths to innovations in fields beyond orthopedics or even medicine (e.g., construction ceramics). Multidisciplinary supervising teams at Fraunhofer IKTS (host) and Penn State University (secondment) will support training through research and transferrable skills development (grant writing, teaching/mentoring, project management, networking, and horizontal skills). Inter-sectoral communication with Charité hospital (short visits) will ensure high-quality guidance in developing prospective biomedical technology from its very beginning. Thus, DrugCer will equip the researcher with unique expertise, skills, and a professional network for establishing an independent group in the niche of low-temperature, energy-efficient ceramic processing.

Miniaturization, advanced high performance materials and functional surface structures are all drivers behind key enabling technologies in high added value production. It is in such areas that ultrashort pulse lasers have enabled completely new machining concepts, where the big advantages of laser machining are combined with a quasi non-thermal and therefore mild process, which can be used to machine any material with high precision. An important obstacle however that hinders the full exploitation of the unique process characteristics, is the lack of a smart / adaptive machining technology. The laser process in principle is very accurate, but small deviations, e.g. in the materials to be processed, can compromise the accuracy to a very large extend. Therefore feedback systems are needed to keep the process accurate. Within this project the goal is to develop an adaptive laser micromachining system, based on ultrashort pulsed laser ablation and a novel depth measurement sensor, together with advanced data analysis software and automated system calibration routines. The sensor can be used inline with the laser ablation process, enabling adaptive processes by fast and accurate 3D surface measurements. The integrated sensor can be used to: • measure the surface topography while machining a part, in order to adapt the micromachining process, leading to highly increased machining accuracies and no defects, • measure the surface topography before machining, to scan for existing surface defects that can be removed in an automatically generated machining process, • measure complex shaped objects prior to machining, to precisely align the machining pattern to the workpiece, • quickly validate results after machining. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to develop a sensor based adaptive micro machining system using ultra short pulsed lasers for zero failure manufacturing.

The HyMethShip project reduces drastically emissions and improves the efficiency of waterborne transport at the same time. This system will be developed, validated, and demonstrated on shore with a typical engine for marine applications in the range of 2 MW (TRL 6). The HyMethShip system will achieve a reduction in CO2 of more than 97% and will practically eliminate SOx and PM emissions. NOx emissions will be reduced by more than 80%, significantly below the IMO Tier III limit. The energy efficiency of the HyMethShip system is more than 45% better than the best available technology approach (renewable methanol as fuel coupled with conventional post-combustion carbon capturing). The HyMethShip system innovatively combines a membrane reactor, a CO2 capture system, a storage system for CO2 and methanol as well as a hydrogen-fueled combustion engine into one system. The proposed solution reforms methanol to hydrogen, which is then burned in a conventional reciprocating engine that has been upgraded to burn multiple fuel types and specially optimized for hydrogen use. The HyMethShip project will undertake risk and safety assessments to ensure that the system fulfills safety requirements for on-board use. It will also take into account the rules and regulations under development for low flashpoint fuels. The cost effectiveness of the system will be assessed for different ship types and operational cases. For medium and long distance waterborne transport, the HyMethShip concept is considered the best approach available that achieves this level of CO2 reduction and is economically feasible. The HyMethShip consortium includes a globally operating shipping company, a major shipyard, a ship classification society, research institutes and universities, and equipment manufacturers. Further stakeholders will be represented in the External Expert Advisory Board and will be addressed by dissemination activities respectively.

ROSIN will create a step change in the availability of high-quality intelligent robot software components for the European industry. This is achieved by building on the existing open-source “Robot Operating System” (ROS) framework and leveraging its worldwide community. ROS and its subsidiary ROS-Industrial (European side led by TU Delft and Fraunhofer) is well-known, but its European industrial potential is underestimated. The two main critiques are (1) is the quality on par with industry, and (2) is there enough European industrial interest to justify investing in it? Partially, the answer is “yes and yes”; ample industrial installations are already operational. Partially however, the two questions hold each other in deadlock, because further quality improvement requires industrial investment and vice versa. ROSIN will resolve the deadlock and put Europe in a leading position. For software quality, ROSIN introduces a breakthrough innovation in automated code quality testing led by IT University Copenhagen, complemented with a full palette of quality assurance measures including novel model-in-the-loop continuous integration testing with ABB robots. Simultaneously, more ROS-Industrial tools and components will be created by making 50% of the ROSIN budget available to collaborating European industrial users and developers for so-called Focused Technical Projects. ROSIN maximizes budget efficacy by alleviating yet another deadlock; experience shows that industry will fund ROS-Industrial developments, but only after successful delivery. ROSIN provides pre-financing for developers which will be recovered into a future revolving fund to perpetuate the mechanism. Together with broad education activities (open for any EU party) led by Fachhochshule Aachen and community-building activities led by Fraunhofer, ROSIN will let ROS-Industrial reach critical mass with further self-propelled growth resulting in a widely adopted, high-quality, open-source industrial standard.