Hannover Messe 2025

ECC4P combines sensors, edge computing and AI-based analyses to identify specific recommendations for action from production data and to give companies a clear competitive advantage. The exhibit is specially designed to show automated production processes such as cutting (milling, drilling), grinding and forming. The approach is scalable and can easily be adapted to different machines, sensor systems, data spaces and cloud and server instances. On the booth, Fraunhofer CCIT will demonstrate how ECC4P makes production processes more efficient, reduces reject rates and lowers downstream testing costs. It also allows machine downtimes and maintenance to be planned more effectively and therefore also to be reduced.

-> More about edge cloud continuum for production

The new generation of the smartTOOL intelligent tool holder for recording sensitive measurement signals forms the basis for the informative and robust monitoring, documentation and automation of machining processes. The combination of innovative sensors and a new antenna design allows for the high-frequency detection of any changes in the condition of the tool or workpiece in parallel with the production process. The patented energy harvesting technology allows the smartTOOL to function independently of a power supply and with no cables.

-> More about process monitoring using smartTOOL (in German)

smartGRIND (adaptive grinding) is a highly sensitive, co-rotating measuring system that is directly connected to the tool and that measures the structure-borne noise emitted by the tool-workpiece contact with minimal interference. It is contactless and allows for high-frequency data transmission in real time.The system is used for the hard fine machining of gears. The energy and data transmission is contactless and allows for high-frequency data transmission in real time. As a result, even the smallest changes in the process can be reliably recorded and used for adaptive process control.

-> More about process monitoring for adaptive grinting using smartGRIND (in German)

Wise-Cut uses AI evaluations to predict tool life and workpiece quality as a local data processing solution at the edge. This keeps latency times to a minimum and optimizes data transmission to the cloud. In addition, Wise-Cut accesses the Fraunhofer edge cloud to use a priori physical models for process planning and to create a digital twin.

-> More about Wise-Cut and sustainable production

Generative AI is not only becoming ever more powerful, but is also increasingly found in mobile systems. With our “GenAI Gateway,” it can be used anywhere, from cloud environments to the edge.

Our demonstrator shows the advantages of this: we rely on local and privacy-compliant AI agents to control a robot arm. The AI agent reacts to speech and text and uses several AI models for their processing. This eliminates the need for complex programming.

-> Mora about GenAI robot control 

ALVISTO identifies even the smallest defects or surface damage precisely and efficiently using AI, regardless of the ambient lighting or the size of the component.The system, which is a combination of classic image processing, deep-learning-supported defect detection and scalable hardware, shows how the efficiency of the edge can be combined with the scalability of the cloud in an edge-cloud infrastructure. ALVISTO uses local data processing at the edge to run rapid surface scans with minimal latency times and identify damage and production faults. Complex, compute-intensive tasks, such as AI training, can take place in the cloud. Use cases from the automotive and insurance industries and from production processes in SMEs demonstrate the scalability of the technology.

-> More on intelligent quality control of (matt) reflective surfaces using ALVISTO

The edge-AI platform functions as a central connection between the cloud and the edge and allows for the automated development of tiny, high-performance AI models with hardware-specific optimization for edge devices, including sensors. This approach provides full data protection and enables existing AI models from the cloud to be used in automated form in small battery-powered and mobile devices.

IntelliEdge uses the example of metal forming in a press to demonstrate that the combination of algorithms for data quality assurance and privacy-oriented federated learning makes possible an edge AI solution that both improves the quality of the production process and is suitable for predictive maintenance. A sensor system (smartNOTCH) that can be retrofitted provides process data in real time, improves data quality using machine learning processes and safeguards data sovereignty with federated learning in edge environments. A plug-and-play solution using the system will be on display on the booth. It has sensor systems that can be retrofitted and universal software components for secure data sharing with edge systems for machine learning.

Smart Track is a valuable basis for traffic control, management and planning and for innovative assistance systems. Using remote camera systems, traffic data can be recorded in real time with automated, efficient processes. Smart Track takes into consideration not only the quality of the traffic flows and their source and destination, but also, for the first time, cyclists and pedestrians. The responsibility for safety is shared, as is the processing of the data. This takes place in part directly in the sensor (at the edge) and in part in the central back-end (the cloud). This combination forms an important building block for the assisted, networked driving of the future.

The GLUE demonstrator shows how data can be shared across enterprise boundaries without losing control over how it is used. This is made possible by an innovative concept called generalized lightweight usage control enforcement (GLUE) that is based on the latest commercial confidential computing technologies. This approach enables companies to ensure the integrity of the recipient's system and therefore the protection of the shared data before the data is transferred. For the first time, GLUE allows for the technical enforcement of agreed usage control rights in data spaces.

 * The GLUE exhibit is not being presented on the Fraunhofer joint booth in Hall 2, but is part of the Industrial Security Circus in Hall 16, Booth A12 (exhibit number 8).

With the help of the ECC exhibits and the impressive ECC4P model on the multimedia wall, visitors to the trade fair can discover how the Fraunhofer CCIT, with its scientific findings and solutions expertise, can support the entire digital value chain as a neutral technology supplier for industrial firms.

Scheduling meetings and press tour:

Would you like to find out about the Fraunhofer CCIT and/or the edge-cloud continuum at the Hannover Messe? You are very welcome to schedule a meeting in advance with Michael Fritz, head of the office of the Fraunhofer CCIT.

Media representatives can also contact Tobias Steinhäußer or the Flutlicht agency (tel: +49 (0)911 474950 | email).

A press tour of the joint Fraunhofer booth (Hall 2, Booth B24) will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on March 31, 2025. You can register by emailing presse[at]zv.fraunhofer.de.