Fraunhofer Gesellschaft e.V.

Rapid control prototyping using real-time plant simulation

The growing technical importance of distributed systems is accompanied by a strong change in the structure of control systems. Many processes and controls are strongly integrated, so that even minor deviations from the control target can have serious effects.

As a result, tests of new ECUs in appropriate environments are often costly and time-consuming. These tests on real systems can be significantly reduced with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL). In addition, it is possible to simulate critical operating states and system failures without endangering any material or people.

Finally, plant or machine simulation allows the testing of control units or components before the entire system has to be installed completely. This drastically shortens preservice testing phases.

Our services

We offer a variety of HIL research and development services:

• Generation of the real-time simulation model of the real multiphysical process
• Simulation and 3D visualization
• Provision of our HIL simulator
• Accompanying the commissioning of control devices and mechatronic components
• Simulation of technical errors such as wobble contacts, cable breaks or short circuits

In addition, we provide support for the design of control algorithms and logical dependencies on the control units:

• Development and implementation and robust controls (from classic PID controllers up to extensive model-based methods)
• Development of test scenarios and controller validation
• Provision of our in-house programmable control units for test purposes

Your Advantages

Extensive system simulation

• Parallel development of control units and system (Rapid Control Prototyping)
• Faster commissioning
• Cost-efficient validation of control units
• Identification of unwanted hardware-related effects
• Non-hazardous testing of critical operating conditions
• Comprehensive error simulations
• Automated testing

Consulting and project support by ITWM experts

Fraunhofer IZM is developing a redundant sensor system for the environment detection of autonomous vehicles. Today autonomous driving offers various sensor principles. However, a sensor technology alone is not enough to meet the enormous demands of autonomous driving: a camera system only works in good visibility conditions, radar or lidar sensors can not detect traffic signs. That is why the Fraunhofer IZM integrates optical cameras and optical sensors in a confined space in one unit.

The developed module will be installed in test vehicles and tested in urban environment as well as in agriculture.

The future is a connected one. Millions of sensors are already collecting data from our everyday lives. These data are transmitted and analyzed through the Internet. With the help of the Internet, machines are controlled, real-time information can be displayed on our mobile phone and vehicles will drive autonomously. At the embedded world 2019, Fraunhofer FOKUS will be showing a test product for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

A secure and privacy-friendly charging and billing process is important for the success of e-mobility. In Germany, protection profiles for charge points and backend connections will be standardized. Based on draft protection profiles developed in the BMWi-funded DELTA project, the Fraunhofer SIT presents a demonstrator of a secure charge point. The demonstrator includes the integration of a security module as well as firmware protection, communication security and a secure over-the-air (OTA) update protocol.

The developed solutions will help electric vehicle and charging station manufacturers as well as providers of infrastructure for protecting their products against manipulations and integrating additional security mechanisms such as monitoring of the system state or a secure OTA update protocol. The solutions are therefore of vital importance for the competitiveness of the German automotive industry from vehicle manufacturers over suppliers to providers of related industries. In addition, the solutions can be transferred to other embedded systems in different application domains.

Blue OLED on silicon sensor detects phosphorescence

The Fraunhofer FEP has many years of expertise in the development and manufacture of highly integrated electro-optical devices based on OLED-on-silicon technology. This technology has been established for the realization of high-resolution microdisplays for AR and VR glasses and is now increasingly being developed further for optical sensor solutions.

For example, optical fingerprint sensors have already been developed by combining the display and image sensor in a so-called bi-directional OLED microdisplay. In addition to the display function, the display pixels serve as smart illumination of the finger resting on it, whose structures are detected via the embedded photodiodes.

Now the researchers went further and developed a miniaturized phosphorescence sensor. In this sensor, a marker is excited by blue, modulated OLED light and the phosphorescence response is detected directly inside the sensor chip. The marker determines the substance to be measured; a typical application is the measurement of oxygen concentration.

Why not use commercial sensors? The challenge lay in the conception of an extremely small sensor, which combines all functionalities and perspectively can be manufactured cost-effectively due to its small size. For this purpose, the OLED control and the sensor front end were integrated into the silicon chip and different arrangements of excitation and detection areas were investigated. The first stage has now resulted in a miniaturized phosphorescence sensor. This is just the size of a thumbnail and combines marker and sensor in a single component. It consists of a blue OLED integrated on the silicon chip together with a commercially available marker.

The sensor is currently designed to detect oxygen changes. With this first setup a functional verification of the device was achieved and the miniaturized sensor chip can be used for oxygen measurements in gases. In future the sensor chip should serve as a platform for future developments, e.g. the measurement of further parameters or use in other environmental conditions.

The current sensor emits blue light for the excitation of the oxygen-sensitive marker on an area of approx. 4.7 x 2.2 mm². The decay time of the emitted marker light is a parameter for the oxygen concentration of the environment. The significantly lower phosphorescence signal is captured by integrated silicon photodiodes, amplified locally in the chip and then evaluated with regard to the phase shift to the exciter signal. In perspective, the chip should be significantly reduced in size, the target being <2x2 mm² total chip size.

Due to the advantages of the innovative phosphorescence sensor - the small size, the combination of marker and sensor on one chip as well as the fast and precise evaluation of the data - the researchers see further areas of application in which the sensor concept is to be used.

The monitoring and evaluation of cell cultures in very small disposable culture vessels or in bioreactors is an interesting application example. "Single-use bioreactors" usually only offer the smallest installation space and a limited number of ports via which measurement systems can be connected. In the future, the sensor system is to be developed in the direction of multi-parameter measurement. The monitoring of liquids after the filling process in the pharmaceutical sector in blisters or for quality control of oxygen-sensitive drugs is also conceivable. The Fraunhofer FEP is very interested in project partnerships for such (further) developments.

At embedded world 2019, in Nuremberg from February 26 - 28, 2019, the Fraunhofer FEP scientists will present the miniaturized fluorescence sensor for oxygen measurement for the first time at the Fraunhofer joint booth in Hall 4, Stand No. 4-470.