Dieter Schwarz Foundation and Fraunhofer to Strengthen Heilbronn as a Robotics Research Hub

Fraunhofer Heilbronn Research and Innovation Centers

Press release December 2024 / December 16, 2024

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will expand its activities in Heilbronn significantly with funding from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation. From 2025, a total of eight research and innovation centers will address research topics ranging from cybersecurity to quantum AI. One center is dedicated to robotics. This will provide an important impetus for innovation in Germany and strengthen the country’s competitiveness in these fields.

The Dieter Schwarz Foundation has been supporting the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Heilbronn since 2019, both financially and through the provision of office and laboratory space on the Bildungscampus Heilbronn. Starting next year, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA will also be part of this funding and will manage one of the research and innovation centers (FIZ).

Extensive funding from 2025 for FIZ 6 “AI-based Robotics”

A new funding agreement with the Dieter Schwarz Foundation will now enable Fraunhofer to expand and further focus its activities in the region from 2025: New centers are to be established in addition to the existing ones, bringing the total number of research and innovation centers in Heilbronn to eight. In addition to the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI and the Fraunhofer Information Center for Planning and Building IRB, the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Information and Analysis Systems IAIS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT (with its ATHENE Center), and Fraunhofer IPA will also be included. The various activities conducted in Heilbronn will be subsumed under the name Fraunhofer Heilbronn Research and Innovation Centers, or Fraunhofer HNFIZ for short.

Holger Hanselka, Reinhold Geilsdörfer and Wilhelm Bauer — © Dieter Schwarz Foundation/Photo: Nico Kurth
With the help of the funding provided by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft will significantly expand its existing activities in Heilbronn. From left to right: Prof. Holger Hanselka (President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Prof. Reinhold Geilsdörfer (CEO of the Dieter Schwarz Foundation) and Prof. Wilhelm Bauer (Director of the Fraunhofer IAO).

Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, said: “Fraunhofer HNFIZ will focus on future-relevant key technologies and on utilizing the research results in business and industry. The centers are set to close a gap and play a key role in Germany's innovation system. The respective research and innovation centers, as well as the Heilbronn location as a whole, will send a strong signal from Heilbronn to Europe and the world as a center for ethical value creation. I would like to thank the Dieter Schwarz Foundation for its extensive support for this project.”

Werner Kraus, Head of the research division “Automation and Robotics” at Fraunhofer IPA, adds: “Social megatrends such as demographic change, labor shortages and resource efficiency are increasing the pressure to automate. It is therefore essential that we can lay the foundations for the robotic transformation in Heilbronn, where many partners such as system and solution providers, but also end users, are on site.”

Further developments of AI-based robotics and quantum computing

Fraunhofer IPA is responsible for FIZ 6 “AI-based Robotics”. Its vision is to develop and enable robotic systems for industrial value creation systems that reach or exceed human levels in terms of flexibility, speed and quality. This addresses three goals: higher productivity to counter demographic change; less specialist knowledge required through the “automation of automation” to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and, finally, less waste and more efficient (intra-)logistics for greater sustainability.

To achieve these goals, the focus lies on the following research and application areas:

Robot hands: The human hand is currently still unsurpassed, particularly in terms of its dexterity in gripping. New software from FIZ AI-based robotics should make it possible to use robot hands available on the market with maximum flexibility in production and logistics processes.
Mobile manipulation: The action radius of the robot increases when combining gripping functions with a mobile or humanoid robot. The focus of research work lies particularly on technologies that require little to none programming effort (“no code”/”low code”).
Loading and unloading trucks: When it comes to automated material flow, this task is still largely manual. The research focus is therefore on the handling of different materials in trucks and the precise positioning of mobile robots in indoor and outdoor areas.
Engineering: This focus area of Fraunhofer IAO deals with the model-based development of robot systems, as well as a continuous IT-support. The goal is to reduce efforts in developing, integration, commissioning and retooling of robot systems, in order to make robots more economically available for smaller companies or productions with small lot sizes.

For Simon Schmidt, Deputy Head of the business unit “Automated Intralogistic, Manufacturing and Assembly Systems« at Fraunhofer IPA, the new FIZ is a decisive milestone: “The Fraunhofer HNFIZ AI-based Robotics, which we manage, gives us the opportunity to consolidate our strategy for highly flexible, industry-relevant automation solutions for material handling and transport in the great Heilbronn ecosystem.”

Additionally to FIZ 6, Fraunhofer IPA is also active in FIZ 8 “Application-oriented quantum AI” under the leadership of Fraunhofer IAO. The FIZ aims to establish the Heilbronn-Franken region internationally in the quantum computing ecosystem by analyzing fundamental synergies between quantum computing and AI, as well as developing hybrid overall solutions. Through application-oriented research and the simultaneous development of a “quantum informed workforce”, companies are supported both technically and organizationally in the integration of these technologies.

Important impetus for the economy and society

The entire funding project is based on close cooperation with regional companies, organizations and public institutes as well as educational institutes and innovation players in the Heilbronn ecosystem to create a unique scientific ecosystem. The start-up funding is planned until 2034, with around 300 full-time scientific employees working for the Fraunhofer HNFIZ in the long term, 200 of them in Heilbronn. A spokesperson group makes the overall strategic decisions in order to avoid redundancies and to promote the transfer and utilization of research results from the outset.

Press release

Dieter Schwarz Foundation and Fraunhofer to Strengthen Heilbronn as a Robotics Research Hub

Fraunhofer Heilbronn Research and Innovation Centers

Extensive funding from 2025 for FIZ 6 “AI-based Robotics”

Further developments of AI-based robotics and quantum computing

Important impetus for the economy and society

About the Dieter Schwarz Foundation

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Dr. phil. Karin Röhricht

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Dr.-Ing. Werner Kraus

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Simon Schmidt