The Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer-IPK), Berlin, Germany, is a research institute and is a part of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) for the promotion of applied research. The FhG presently consists of about 50 institutes throughout Germany and is a non-profit organisation. The Fraunhofer IPK (about 110 scientist staff members) is located in Berlin and works in the fields of Automation and Robotics, Corporate Management, Product Manufacturing, Security and Testing Systems, and Virtual Product Development.

The institute is mainly concerned with increasing the productivity of industrial processes. This implies a wide range of activities from improving certain functions of machines up to designing complex production systems and planning whole factories. Moreover the IPK carries out intensive work in the areas of reorganisation of factory structures, business process optimisation, personnel training, and quality management. Also, the IPK has been increasingly successful in transferring know-how from production technology to the fields of traffic, safety and environmental technology. A special concern of the IPK is providing small and medium-sized companies with innovative technologies.

The Institute of Production Engineering and Machine Tools (Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Werkzeugmaschinen, IFW) is one of the academic departments of the University of Hannover and among the well known research institutes of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of production engineering. It has a strong reputation in the fields of production management and organisation, machining technology, machine tools, robotics and controls as well as technological information systems. Its activities are aimed at rationalise the manufacturing processes though a balance of fundamental and application oriented research works. The results of the institute’s efforts are accredited world-wide. The close co-operation of the institute with the industry accounts for the good insight of the problems and demands in production environments. Approximately 40 % of the yearly turnover of the IFW is achieved by means of projects which are directly financed by industrial partners, many of whom are SMEs. Beside these sort of projects and the basic research programs funded by the German Research Council (DFG), the IFW has been successfully involved in several European projects like Brite/Euram, Esprit and Copernicus. Related EU-funded projects are HIPARMS, EASYCON, BETTI, COCOS, TOPSYS, FLAMINGO, MAREA, EUROSHOE, AMADEUS, ECOWIRE and ENGY. The IFW employees around 65 research engineers, several technician, programmers, staff personnel as well as about 150 students working as part-time employees.

The "Fraunhofer Gesellschaft" (FhG) is the leading applied research organisation in Europe with 56 institutes working in different fields of science and engineering. Contractual research constitutes a share of more than 80%. FhG is a non-profit institution with approximately 12,000 employees.

The "Fraunhofer Institute for Indus-trial Engineering" (FhG-IAO) is working in the field of technology management and industrial engineering, in particular with computer-integrated business systems, manufacturing systems, organisational and software engineering as well as technology transfer. The mission of FhG-IAO is to achieve a rapid and effective transfer of research results into industrial practice and products. FhG-IAO is staffed with more than 260 scientific and technical employees. The scientific background of the staff encompasses among others computer science, industrial management and engineering, mathematics and statistics, psychology and sociology.

The Competence Centre for Human Computer Interaction (formerly Software Technologies) together with its market focus team Web Application Engineering is an interdisciplinary research group of computer scientists, engineers, psychologists, and media designers with a strong background in advanced systems development methods and tools, and human-computer interaction. The main areas of work comprise:

• Collaboration and knowledge management support systems
• Object-oriented technologies and distributed system architectures
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Human factors of software systems

The group is designing and developing systems and applications in a variety of areas such as business applications, corporate memories, creativity support systems, and web services. The team has gained extensive experiences pertaining to research in the area of plant portals for semi-conductor industries.

The competence centre is currently being subcontracted by 7 companies in the OEE-Overall Equipment Effectiveness project funded by the German Ministry of Research and Education. Fraunhofer IAO has been participating in European Research Programmes since 1983. The Institute has been an official European Usability Support Centre in the Commission’s Telematics Programme with the mission of improving the usability and acceptability of advanced information & communication technology.

Schneider Electric is a global leading company in the automation and electrical distribution business. Main development sites of Schneider Electric Industrial Automation are in France, Germany and USA. It combines the Telemecanique, SquareD, Modicon and former AEG master brands of the parent company Schneider Electric Industries. The Schneider Electric Industrial Automation brands offer its target industrial process end users and OEM customers superior products and services throughout their automation journey. Currently Schneider Electric Industries is employing 64 000 people world wide with revenues of about 6 billion Euro. Industrial Automation as part of Schneider Electric Industries is employing around 2000 People. Key customers like DaimlerChrysler, Coca Cola, VW, Mars, Opel, Merck, General Motors, Ford, BASF, Thyssen, Burton using the competencies and project experiences in the automation and electrical distribution business of Schneider Electric Industrial Automation. Innovative technologies like PC based control systems are developed and driven by Schneider Electric Industrial Automation as well as contributions to international standards for automation like IEC 61131 and IEC 61499. Further Schneider Electric Industrial Automation is leading in the combination of IT and industrial automation, in the usage of internet based protocols and in development of agent-oriented software for flexible control systems.

The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft is the leading contract organisation for applied research in Germany. Currently the portfolio of competencies comprises more than 50 institutes mainly in Germany but also in the US and Asia. With 11000 employees the total annual budget reaches 710 mio €. Approximately 40 % of the turnover is based on direct contract research for industrial customers.

The IPA with more than 200 employees is the largest Fraunhofer Institute located in Stuttgart, Germany. The institute offers contract research and industrial developments in three activity fields:

• Corporate Management
• Automation
• Manufacturing Technologies

In these business areas the IPA achieves an annual turnover of more than 30 mio € in which approximately 50 % are in contract research for industry.

In this project proposal the department Robot Systems of the Automation division in IPA participates. Within this division 68 employees develop innovative automation systems for a variety of applications:

• Manufacturing
• Trade
• Services
• Health-care
• Construction equipment
• Transport and Traffic
• Entertainment