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With around 500 guests and excellent weather, the opening ceremony was a complete success. Find more information as well as photos and video footage here:

To the opening ceremony

The relocation of our large machines from the central research fields of lightweight construction and electromobility has been completed since June 2021! We look forward to the opportunities we can offer our industrial partners here in the future.

During an on-site visit, Theresia Bauer, Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Science, Research and Arts, learned about the start-up of the Karlsruhe Research Factory for AI-integrated Production, which has been in operation since 2018.

The Research Factory is an ideal place to put future visions for production technology into practice and to test them. This is how imaginative, new solutions are being advanced in the 'Mobility of the Future' innovation campus. “I am impressed by the innovation potential for Baden-Württemberg that is being unleashed here – supported by AI methods and the decoupling of hardware and software,” said Science Minister Theresia Bauer.

“Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning are the top themes of our time, also in industrial production,” said KIT President Professor Holger Hanselka. “Only on the basis of basic university research, methods derived from it, and in cross-disciplinary cooperation with strong partners in science and industry can we secure our innovative capability. The Karlsruhe Research Factory is a prime example of this.”

“Our goal is to bring challenging, innovative manufacturing processes into operational practice as quickly as possible. Here, we are already on an excellent path with the activities already started, among others also within the framework of the InnovationCampus Future Mobility,” said KIT Vice President for Innovation and International Affairs Professor Thomas Hirth.

In the Karlsruhe Research Factory, the future topic of AI-integrated production will be researched in a practical way on real processes. Supported by the latest methods of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, challenging manufacturing processes are to be transferred from the idea to operational practice in the shortest possible time. "The Karlsruhe Research Factory is to become a melting pot of innovative ideas. Here, science and industry are to tackle current challenges in production engineering hand in hand in order to quickly transfer new technologies to industry," says Professor Jürgen Fleischer, head of the wbk Institute of Production Science at KIT and initiator of the Karlsruhe Research Factory.

Current research: battery cells, electric drives, additive manufacturing, agile production

At several stations, scientists presented the status of current research projects in the fields of battery cell manufacturing, electric drives, and additive manufacturing and agile production systems to the minister.

A large number of these projects are assigned to the topic ‘Advanced Manufacturing’ as well as ‘Software-Defined Manufacturing’ in the InnovationCampus Future Mobility together with the University of Stuttgart. The InnovatioCampus is a joint initiative of KIT and the University of Stuttgart that promotes exchange between different scientific fields but also between science and industry. The state is investing about 65 million euros in the InnovationCampus. In addition, there are extensive state and federal funds for the associated projects and implementation sites.

The Karlsruhe Research Factory was founded by the wbk Institute of Production Science at KIT and the Fraunhofer Institutes of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB) and of Chemical Technology (ICT) and is jointly operated. The teams start their first research activities. The official opening and inauguration of the Research Factory is planned for early 2022.

Further information:

Announcement of the cornerstone ceremony:

https://www.kit.edu/kit/english/pi_2019_102_test-zone-for-agile-manufacturing.php

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