EDIH Digital Innovations for Industry in Bavaria (DIBI)

Another focus is on events in the test environment to introduce SMEs to the test center. Feedback from SMEs is taken into account and incorporated into the tests. The best practice examples created are also presented.

Services: scientific events on the testing possibilities in the test environment and external events

On 26 June 2025, the ITG Radio-Based Positioning Conference took place at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg. Numerous participants from research, industry and applications were given an insight into the latest developments, practical solutions and future technological topics relating to radio-based positioning.

In three tracks, experts presented the topics of ‘Radio-based positioning and machine learning’, ‘Integrated communication and sensing’ and industrial localisation applications from practice. Live demonstrations at the Fraunhofer IIS test and application centre L.I.N.K. rounded off the event. The applications presented included environment detection and collision avoidance with UWB-Roundview, precise distance measurement using FR2 Joint Communications & Positioning, localisation in LPWAN radio networks using the example of mioty and the system evaluation of localisation technologies with automated result reports using the example of 5G.

The "5G Connect Advanced" event took place on September 19, 2024 at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg in the renowned 5G Bavaria Testbed Industry 4.0. The summit offered the numerous participants a comprehensive insight into the transformative potential of 5G and 5G Advanced.

A panel discussion with experts from practice and research, including from the fields of industrial communication, technical electronics and cyber security, offered guests an exciting insight into the opportunities and challenges of 5G and 6G technologies. The discussion provided a varied perspective on the digital future.

The event also included an exhibition of pioneering applications for professional mobile solutions and live demonstrations such as positioning with 5G, quantum reinforcement learning and the location of emergency services. Experts from industry, mobile network operators, associations and research institutes showcased real-world applications and future developments in the next generation of mobile networks and future technologies such as AI, quantum computing and ICAS.

5G Connect Advanced was organized in cooperation with 5G DIALOG and sponsored by FibroLAN, NTT Data and Siemens.

On July 3, 2024, the 17th Embedded Talk took place at Fraunhofer IIS in Nuremberg as part of the Nuremberg Digital Festival NUEDIGITAL. Under the motto "Next Generation IoT - Communication & AI", guests were able to find out more about the topics of localization with 5G/6G, artificial intelligence, sustainable IoT and electronics, wireless communication for industry and mioty in external keynotes, presentations by IIS employees and demonstrations.

A packed and varied agenda awaited the guests: at the beginning of the event, keynotes were given by Michael Tränkler (Diehl Metering), Anja Scheckenbach (N-ERGIE) and Simon Schrampfer (Sentinum) on IoT in the smart city and in industry. This was followed by presentations by colleagues from Fraunhofer IIS on mioty, RFID, energy harvesting, industrial wireless systems and reinforcement learning for industrial applications. In addition to the Fraunhofer IIS exhibits, a smart tree irrigation exhibit from FAU and a smart house with sensors from Diehl Metering were also set up in the subsequent exhibition.

With the support of the City of Nuremberg and together with the FAU, the 17th Embedded Talk was a very successful event, attended by more than 100 external guests from companies in the region, who had plenty of time to exchange ideas and network at the get-together. 

The mioty days 2023 took place from December 5 to 7 at the Fraunhofer IIS site in Nuremberg. For three days, around 90 mioty alliance members, partners and those who want to become members came together and provided a valuable exchange of experiences: new mioty-based IoT applications and products from the companies were presented and demonstrated. In addition, a large number of products and technical innovations from mioty members successfully passed the mioty certification process. Certification was also an important topic during the presentations. The conference days were complemented by an evening visit to the Christmas market and the winter huts. Overall, the mioty days provided a great opportunity to meet the members in person and further expand the success of the mioty technology.

The "International Conference on Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation IPIN" is an annual event dedicated to indoor positioning, its applications and its development. It was first held in Zurich in 2010 and is organized by a different country each year. In 2023, the 13th IPIN was organized by Fraunhofer IIS at Nordostpark, for the first time in Germany.

Over the course of four days, more than 270 international guests from almost 30 countries exchanged ideas and research results on indoor positioning and indoor navigation at IPIN 2023. The program included inspiring keynotes from Google, Ericsson and Huawei, a relaxed Bavarian-style ice breaker session, innovative presentations and posters on the topic of indoor positioning/indoor navigation as well as sightseeing and a dinner with the guests.

The conference area was spread over four session rooms in two buildings, with the L.I.N.K. Hall as the most important and largest room serving as the stage for the keynotes and the award session. The IPIN app developed by IIS helped guests to find their way around the conference and get an overview of the program.

Fraunhofer IIS participated in the Tech Days 2023 in Munich, which were organized by EDIH DIBI project partner Bayern Innovativ and Security Network Munich. The Tech Days are a prestigious event that brings together experts, investors and technology enthusiasts from the industry. They provide a platform for the presentation of the latest technological advances as well as networking opportunities and the exchange of ideas. Fraunhofer IIS had a booth there and presented the 5G Testbed. Visitors also had the opportunity to find out about other test options in the L.I.N.K. hall. The event was mainly aimed at start-ups and SMEs.

Interesting presentations were given by Roland Weigert, former State Secretary in the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, and Judith Gerlach, former Bavarian State Minister for Digital Affairs. Other speakers from Fraunhofer included representatives from the IML, AISEC, IWU, IKS and SIT institutes. In addition to exhibitions and presentations, the program also included conferences, workshops and panel discussions on a wide range of technology topics.

In order to guarantee improved access to the testing options, various activities are to be carried out in the area of presenting these options. These include sample tests and the presentation of the L.I.N.K. hall. These may include films, internet tools, presentations or other content. Best practice examples are also processed and presented.

Services: Content in the form of various presentation media such as film, web, presentations and online consulting

As part of IPIN 2023, guests were able to try out indoor localization based on field strength measurement using the IPIN 2023 app created by Fraunhofer IIS and gain an impression of the performance of this method.

The app was developed using Flutter, a modern cross-platform framework technology from Google that enables a smooth and consistent user experience across different devices. This framework simplifies the creation of appealing and efficient apps for different platforms, including iOS, Android and the web, with a single code base. This allowed a prototype to be tested as a web app very early in the development process to receive feedback, speeding up the entire development cycle. The final application was offered free of charge as a native app in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

The IPIN 2023 app provides a comprehensive conference schedule, allowing easy planning of days with a full schedule of talks, workshops and activities. The search and tagging function allows everyone to make the most of the event catalog. Even without an internet connection, the app allows offline access to important event information and the full schedule.

The integration of awiloc®, an advanced indoor positioning technology from Fraunhofer IIS, gives the app precise positioning capabilities, taking the conference experience to a new level. Using the interactive map with indoor localization makes it easy to navigate through the conference building, finding meeting rooms, exhibitors and facilities with ease.

In the hospital sector, there are a large number of logistical and organizational processes that need to be recorded, documented and checked. The degree of digitization in practice is currently very mixed and, in addition to the “paper and pencil” method, a variety of different AutoID technologies are used. Whether for patient identification, bed management, medication management or even operating room equipment, some objects are counted directly and managed in lists, while others use human-readable or machine-readable labels, barcodes, QR codes or RFID transponders in practice. Overall technical concepts based on RFID technology or radio location are often difficult to map for all areas due to the different requirements in the large number of use cases and the boundary conditions due to this special environment, also due to the associated cost structures.

In addition to the many solutions already available in the operating theater, there is a need to identify consumables such as surgical drapes or compresses and document their whereabouts. Specifically, such cloths and compresses are counted before and after an operation in order to rule out the possibility of these objects being accidentally left behind in the body. This process could be significantly improved by AutoID technologies. However, it should be noted that any technology must be able to cope with the environmental conditions (contamination, sterilization, liquids).

The use of RFID technology in this context was investigated in a short study at Fraunhofer IIS. For this purpose commercially available transponder solutions that could be used in this environment were researched and sampled. 

These samples were used to carry out and evaluate tests on reading range and reliability. The applicability of the technology in general in this scenario was also examined.

The results serve as a starting point for further research and are linked to other studies, e.g. on the identification of surgical instruments.

In order to improve access and service for SMEs, simulations and test procedures are being adapted. These include, among other things:

• Functional testing: By accessing all trace and debug information, deep insights and root cause analysis can be offered to troubleshoot or optimize systems and products.
• Performance tests: In the areas of communication and positioning, the performance of system components or complete solutions can be tested. Among other things, the 3D positioning system is available as a reference.
• Stability or long-term tests: Various scenarios are automatically repeated in a defined sequence and number.

Benefits: improved test and simulation routines

Image data is categorized for various purposes, especially in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Categorization (annotation) makes it possible to train AI models (supervised) to recognize and localize objects in images or videos.

The performance of modern AI-based object recognition models for the automatic annotation of image data was investigated with the medium-sized company solectrix. The focus was on comparing different "zero-shot" models for automatic object recognition. These pre-trained models can recognize objects without additional training by the user - they understand natural language and identify objects based on their textual description. This automation replaces the time-consuming and labor-intensive manual annotation process, which is particularly advantageous for medium-sized companies.

Various practical scenarios from the industrial environment were simulated in a measurement campaign in the L.I.N.K. test environment. For the recordings, cameras were mounted on a forklift truck while several people moved around it. Both static and dynamic situations with different lighting conditions were tested in order to create as much variation in the data as possible. In total, over 3900 images were collected, which were then manually annotated and served as a ground truth dataset.

The zero-shot object recognition models were first evaluated using the ground truth dataset, whereby the annotation quality was assessed using metrics such as mAP (mean Average Precision). In the next step, YOLO models used for real-time object recognition were trained using both the auto-annotated data and the ground truth dataset. These trained models were then compared on a pre-defined test dataset to evaluate how the quality of the automatic annotation affects the performance of the trained models.

The results show: The automatic annotation of image data is effective. While the manual annotation of the data set took around 40 hours, the zero-shot models only required 20 minutes, with the mAP being only 7% lower in some cases. This enormous time saving with minimal loss of performance makes this approach particularly valuable for companies that have to process large volumes of image data.

A decisive advantage of these models for SMEs lies in their flexibility: they do not require extensive training and can be controlled by simple text instructions. This not only saves time during setup, but also reduces the costs for special software and expertise. Through tests like these, Fraunhofer IIS enables SMEs to make the right choice of AI tools to recognize objects.