Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Maintaining wind turbines and identifying potential vulnerabilities is expensive and time-consuming, especially when they are located offshore. As a result, rotor blades are often simply replaced, a costly process, when damage is merely suspected. The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, working in concert with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, has developed a solution that can be used to identify cracks and breakage inside the blades remotely at an early stage.

An innovative measurement method enables optimized battery management in electric vehicles, helping to make them safer and extend their lifespans. Impedance spectroscopy from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM analyzes detailed measurement data on the battery’s state in real time during operation. This means batteries can also be used for safety-critical applications.

Cars are still the number one mode of transportation in Germany, in spite of their high carbon emissions. To make ecofriendler alternatives more attractive, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB are working with partners in the DAKIMO project to develop intelligent, intermodal transportation. An AI for multimodal route planning is being developed to help get people to where they are going seamlessly, conveniently, and reliably — and all without privately owned cars.

Tumors of the pancreas seldom cause symptoms in their early stages. This means that in many cases, they are not diagnosed until late, when the chances of successful treatment are poor. A new non-invasive diagnostic method designed by Fraunhofer researchers is set to make it possible to detect this aggressive form of cancer early on with high accuracy, significantly improving the prognosis for treatment.