Automation, Communication and Cybernetics in Science and Engineering 2015/2016

In autonomous driving, object tracking is necessary to gather actual information about the object of interest. The longitudinal and lateral controls of automated highway systems need a target object not only to maintain the safety distance between vehicles but also to keep the following vehicle in the same track as the preceding vehicle. So far automated highway systems were only developed for urban and highway environment depending on lane markings. In future, their application should be extended to unstructured environments (e.g. desert) and be adapted for heterogeneous vehicles. In this paper an approach towards this is presented, where the back view of preceding vehicle is the target object. This solution is independent from the environmental structure as well as additional equipment like infrared emitters. In this paper, the tracking process of the back view is discussed using video streams recorded by a stereo vision system. For an accurate and fast tracking in unstructured environment and with heterogeneous platoons the proposed method is a supplement to the detection process. Therefore, the tracking process has to be (a) applicable under real time constraints and (b) adaptable in dynamic environments. Compared to other methods related to object detection and tracking, the proposed method reduces the running time for the tracking of the back view from reported 12–30 to 16–66 frame/s.

Nachhaltige Beschäftigungsfähigkeit ist notwendig, um die Beschäftigten mittel- und langfristig gesund und damit leistungsfähig zu erhalten. Soziale Innovationen für nachhaltige Beschäftigungsfähigkeit drücken sich in einem präventiven Denken und Handeln bei Beschäftigten und Unternehmen aus, das nicht mehr allein kurzfristige ökonomische Erfolge zum Ziel haben kann. Gefragt sind Gestaltungskonzepte einer auf Ressourcenerhaltung und -regeneration abzielenden Gesundheitsförderung, die insbesondere die Stärkung psychosozialer Ressourcen anstrebt und auch praktisch in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen umsetzbar sein muss. Von zentraler Bedeutung ist dabei die Stärkung der Veränderungsfähigkeit von Menschen und Organisationen, denn Wandel wird die zukünftige Arbeitswelt auch weiterhin bestimmen. Welche Herausforderungen, Gestaltungsaufgaben und Forschungsbedarfe aus Sicht der Akteure des Förderschwerpunktes mit dieser Thematik einhergehen, werden in diesem Beitrag dargestellt.

Die Arbeitsforschung hat sich in den letzten fünfzehn Jahren intensiv mit dem Thema des demografischen Wandels befasst. Nun deutet sich ein neuer Megatrend an, der in das Zentrum der Arbeitsforschung geraten wird: Die zunehmende Digitalisierung der Arbeit, die mit dem Schlagwort Industrie 4.0 beschrieben wird. Personen und Unternehmen werden sich mit beiden Entwicklungen gleichermaßen auseinandersetzen und Gestaltungsfähigkeit für die sich weiter dynamisch verändernden Arbeits- und Lebenswelten entwickeln müssen. Die Aufgabe der Arbeitsforschung liegt dabei in der Erarbeitung von Strategien, Konzepten und Modellen, damit Menschen und Unternehmen die Entwicklungspotenziale der Digitalisierung der Arbeit nutzen und gleichzeitig lernen, mit den zunehmenden Ambivalenzen der Entwicklung umzugehen.

Der nachhaltige Transfer von Ergebnissen aus der Forschung in die Praxis gewinnt in Zeiten von steigendem Wettbewerb und erhöhtem Bedarf an ganzheitlichen Innovationsprozessen zunehmend an Bedeutung (Leisten, Ingo (2012): Transfer Engineering in transdisziplinären Forschungsprojekten. Norderstedt: 5). Gleichzeitig werden aus den beiden letztgenannten Gründen Forschungsprozesse zunehmend unter transdisziplinären Rahmenbedingungen gemeinsam von Wissenschaft und Praxis gestaltet, was einerseits besondere Anforderungen an die Zusammenarbeit stellt, andererseits u. a. zahlreiche Potentiale hinsichtlich des Transfers der (Projekt-)Ergebnisse bietet. Der vorliegende Beitrag verfolgt daher das Ziel, eine strukturelle Übersicht über die Transferlandschaft, am Beispiel der Förderschwerpunkte im Kontext der Arbeitsforschung (z. B. Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel), zu geben. Die komplexe Struktur der Förderschwerpunkte mit einer Vielzahl von kooperierenden wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen und Praxispartnern (insgesamt 27 Verbundprojekte und mehr als 80 beteiligte Institutionen forschen deutschlandweit gemeinsam im Rahmen des Förderschwerpunktes ,,Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel“ an der systematischen Erschließung von Innovationspotenzialen, welche aus dem demografischen Wandel entstehen, um diesen zur Steigerung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit nutzbar zu machen.) erweist sich unter dem Fokus einer externen Adressierung der Forschungsergebnisse als besondere Herausforderung, die im Folgenden zunächst erörtert wird. Ferner werden Potentiale in diesem Kontext aufgezeigt. Im weiteren Verlauf erfolgt eine systematische Aufbereitung und Darstellung bereits bestehender Transferstrukturen. Abschließend werden Handlungsempfehlungen zur Gestaltung des Transfers unter Berücksichtigung der förderstrukturellen Rahmenbedingungen gegeben.

Eine Perspektive, aus der sich der demografische Wandel analysieren lässt, stellt die regionale Perspektive bzw. die Region als multidimensionales Konstrukt dar. So geben unter anderem neue Kooperationsformen und regionale Identitäten gegenwärtig Antworten auf die Frage, wie Regionen innovativ bleiben und dem demografischen Wandel proaktiv begegnen können. Der Beitrag diskutiert den zunehmenden Zusammenschluss von Unternehmen und anderen Organisationen in regionalen Netzwerken am Beispiel von Ergebnissen eines BMBF Förderschwerpunkts. Inwiefern räumliche Nähe und eine gemeinsame Identität als vielversprechende Faktoren zum erfolgreichen Lernen in Netzwerken dienen, wird diesbezüglich erläutert. Im Sinne weiterer Gestaltungsaufgaben und Forschungsfragen, u. a. zur Koordination von Netzwerken, wird der Bedarf nach einer zunehmenden Systematisierung und Bündelung von regionalen Ergebnissen seitens der Wissenschaft und Praxis deutlich, durch die in Zukunft ein intensiveres Lernen zwischen Netzwerken ermöglicht werden kann.

Was sind die einschlägigen und nachhaltigen Entwicklungen der Industrie, die heute noch unser Arbeiten in Industrie und Produktion prägen und verändert haben? Wenn wir zurück blicken zeigt die Erfahrung, dass es weder möglich ist, vollautomatische Fabriken zu entwickeln, noch alles Wissen der Menschheit mit Hilfe riesiger Datenbanken zu konservieren. Diese Ideen, die früher Trends setzten, sind nun überholt. Durch den Misserfolg dieser Ideen haben wir jedoch ein nützliches Konzept gelernt, den sogenannten ,,HOT Approach“: zuerst der Mensch, als zweites die Organisation und drittens die Technologie. Auf diese Weise kann menschliches Wissen und Potential in Kombination mit adäquater Organisation zu technischen Innovationen führen. Im Moment besteht die Herausforderung darin, dieses Konzept auf jüngste und zukünftige Ideen zu transferieren; z. B. das vollautomatische Auto oder die Veränderung in der Nutzung erneuerbarer Energien. Dabei sollte bedacht werden, dass technische Innovation immer menschliche und organisationale Aspekte enthalten muss, um wirklich nachhaltig zu sein.

Careers of women in science run along a gendered “leaky pipeline” (cf. European Commission 2001: 12). With each career level the percentage of women decreases. The German average of female professors currently reaches only about 20 % (cf. European Commission 2013: 90). On average, the percentage of female professors in EU-25 is 18 % (cf. European Commission 2013: 90). Recent studies about the marginalization of women in the German science system suggest that the under-representation of female scientists has to be analysed through deep insight of the scientific system and its structures in order to understand and explain the background. The main objective of “Genderation BeSt” was to analyse the habits and rules of appointment procedures at universities and to develop gender sensitive and gender neutral methods for assignment and personnel recruitment at German universities, especially in the fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET). The project “Genderation BeSt” was conducted in a cooperation between RWTH Aachen (IMA/ZLW & IfU) and the Technical University of Munich (Gender Studies in Science and Engineering) and funded by the ESF and the BMBF from December 2011 until February 2013. A first work package included qualitative interviews with members of appointment committees to evaluate which structural and cultural mechanisms exist and influence the proportion of female professors at German universities. Since the amount of external funding serves as an essential quality feature in appointment processes – particularly within STEM faculties –, the next step was to analyse whether and to what extent external funding calls of the leading German research institutions contribute to a gender asymmetry. This was achieved via text mining procedures and expert interviews. The investigations resulted in targeted recommendations to higher education, research institutions and science policy regarding gender-sensitive and gender-neutral appointment methods and recruitment strategies for the promoted appointment of women in academia.

Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) is described as a specific mode of collaboration: Besides the clash of different institutional cultures (e.g. different expectations/working processes), there is a clash of epistemic cultures (i.e. styles of thinking, different languages) (Jooß, C. (2014): Interdisciplinary Research collaboration: Critical Incidents from the researchers’ perspective, in Gestaltung von Kooperationsprozessen interdisziplinärer Forschungsnetzwerke, Norderstedt: BOD-Verlag, pp. 146–179). Former research shows that the involved researchers demand an integrative knowledge management to support the expected integration of cultures (ibid.). In this paper two major aspects regarding integrative knowledge management for IDR are discussed. On the one hand the need for integrative knowledge management based on the researchers’ perspective is depicted in the context of a use case. On the other hand the concept of a virtual mean is elaborated, which supports these needs. Both aspects underline the importance of a process-accompanying support in close coordination with the respective needs of the involved researchers.

The management of academic knowledge is a relatively young area of attention. Universities and other higher education institutions accumulate a great deal of knowledge and the management of this asset is more than ever crucial for the strategic alignment. Hence, this paper aims at showing that knowledge management in academic research should work hand in hand with futures studies to develop and foster a strategic orientation. For this purpose the knowledge management model by Probst et al. (1998) with its eight building blocks serves as a framework. The focus of this paper lies on the processes of knowledge goals (ibid.) and knowledge identification (ibid.). Here it will be discussed that the futures studies methods monitoring, scenario technique and forecasting are suitable to complement knowledge management methods within academic research due to their ability to identify and concentrate information and knowledge relevant to the future.

Der seit dem Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts anhaltende Trend zur Flexibilisierung und Entgrenzung von Erwerbsverläufen wird derzeit durch die Digitalisierung von Arbeitsprozessen und Unternehmensformen weiter verschärft. Auch subjektive Sinnansprüche an Arbeit – vor allem der jüngeren Generation – führen dazu, dass Arbeitsbiografien bunter werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat die Session ,,Neue Formen der Arbeit und die neuen Erwerbsbiografien“ auf der Tagung des Metaprojektes DEMOSCREEN im BMBF-Förderschwerpunkt ,,Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel“ den Stand der Debatte skizziert und die Gestaltungsaufgaben und Forschungsfragen der Zukunft auf diesem Feld entwickelt. Der Beitrag dokumentiert die Ergebnisse der Session.

The complexity and dynamicity of interdisciplinary research clusters requires an efficient management in order to ensure a good performance. Therefore, this paper presents an iterative regulatory process for managing interdisciplinary research clusters which has been implemented at the two clusters of excellence at RWTH Aachen University. Thereby, an annual evaluation of the cluster performance through a cluster-specific employee survey forms the basis for the derivation and implementation of different measures. By evaluating the performance again, the loop of organizational learning starts anew. As one example of these measures, the colloquia of employees are described in further details because the adaptation and optimization of concepts illustrate the effects of the continuous improvement. Furthermore, the general performance development of the cluster was analyzed to show the comprehensive effects of the regulatory process.

Mit der Globalisierung wächst der Kostendruck für Unternehmen. Die Spezialisierung von produzierenden Unternehmen auf einen Bereich der Wertschöpfungskette führt zu einer Reduktion der internen Wertschöpfung (BDI & Z_Punkt GmbH (Hrsg.) (2012). Deutschland 2030 - Zukunftperspektiven der Wertschöpfung.). Insbesondere die geographische Verteilung der Produktionsnetzwerke aufgrund der Globalisierung verstärkt die Abhängigkeit von Lieferanten und ausländischen Produktionsstandorten (Schatz, A., Hermann, M., & Mandel, J. (2010). Risikomanagement in der Beschaffung eingesetzte Strategien und Methoden, organisatorische Verankerung, Bedeutung und Reifegrad des Risikomanagements in der Beschaffung in der Industrie. Stuttgart: Fraunhofer Inst.). Dies führt zu länder- und branchenübergreifenden Risiken. Daher ist für produzierende Unternehmen die Identifikation und Bewertung dieser Risiken zur Erhaltung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit erforderlich. In der Literatur existieren unterschiedliche Ansätze und Methoden für die Risikobewertung. Allerdings sind für die Anwendung dieser Methoden unterschiedliche quantitative und qualitative Informationen und Verfahren verfügbar, aus denen der Anwender eine Auswahl zu treffen hat. Im Rahmen der Risikobewertung wird eine stärkere Berücksichtigung von Unsicherheit in Risikomanagement-Modellen gefordert (Gleißner, W. (2011). Grundlagen des Risikomanagements im Unternehmen: Controlling, Unternehmensstrategie und wertorientiertes Management. Vahlen.). Dies bedingt eine Einbeziehung moderierender Effekte, was eine potentielle Reduktion von kognitiven Verzerrungen zur Folge hat. In diesem Artikel wird neben der Herleitung des Risikomanagements aus dem Informationsmanagement und ein Literaturreview bestehender Risikomanagement-Modelle und Risikobewertungstechniken durchgeführt. Neben einer Definition der Begriffe Unsicherheit, Ungewissheit und Risiken, werden Risikobewertungstechniken im Hinblick auf ihre Eignung zum Einsatz in Managementmodellen nach der Systematik von Ziegenbein analysiert. Auf Basis dieser Ergebnisse wird ein kybernetisches Modell beschaffungsinduzierter Störgrößen erstellt. Dieses Modell ist durch eine Kombination bestehender Techniken und einen szenariobasierten Ansatz gekennzeichnet. Abschließend erfolgt ein Ausblick auf die notwendigen Schritte zur Entwicklung einer Software.

Research in the challenging field of industrial engineering and engineering management often needs the expertise from more than one discipline. Therefore interdisciplinary research has taken on continuously greater significance. Over the last years various research clusters – such as cluster of excellence – were initiated in the course of the German excellence initiative. Thereby researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds are brought together, to investigate research questions with societal and economical relevance. These new research clusters cause various challenges, especially on communication, because communication is one decisive factor of success in interdisciplinary cooperation. Approaches to investigate communication, performance and interdisciplinarity within these clusters are compared and a communication oriented measurement approach is explained. Especially the operationalization and validation of the indicator communication, giving conclusions onto the quality of cooperation, is depicted as well as measures to react on.

Collaborative research centers and clusters of excellence constitute public funded programs aspiring to advance research in interdisciplinary forms of collaboration throughout Germany. Due to emerging funding volumes and increasing expectations in results, concepts for performance measurement and management gain in importance. Results of an empirical study among all actively funded collaborative research centers and clusters of excellence make obvious that key performance indicators – such as the quota of publications or the number of international visiting researchers – are central. Nevertheless, holistic methods and concepts of performance measurement seem still not to be widespread among respective speakers and chief executive officers.

Scientific research and development programs (R&D programs) are national instruments to sustainably secure innovative capability and competitiveness. Due to an increasing rate of change in all societal functional areas, these programs have to be continuously advanced, but also new R&D programs have to be tendered. Prospectively more societal impulses have to be taken into account for the advancement of R&D programs and the ex-ante determination of program contents. Here, the methodical basis is characterized by the analysis of social needs. In terms of substance, sources of Social Media (SM) work out perfectly as data or text corpora: Everyday life is becoming increasingly digitally networked and a large part of interpersonal communication is realized via SM. SM represent a pool of qualitative and quantitative data in order to reflect societal moods. It can be regarded as untouched, raw and unevaluated data. Existing methods of Social Media Monitoring (SMMO) use this information as a basis for trend analysis, issue monitoring and the detection of influencers. SMMO is no temporal specific action, but rather an open-ended task. The conventional application fields of SMMO primarily relate to commercial market research, corporate communications and public relations. In this context SMMO is used with the intent of an overall social and political use, interest or benefit. A new approach is currently being developed by considering methods of system theory and cybernetics. Using this theoretical, system-oriented framework, R&D programs can be constructed as socio-technical, complex living systems. Finally, cybernetic SMMO allows for a continuous and active involvement of the society into politics. It supports program management and research promoters of publicly funded R&D projects by taking into account social impulses for the advancement of R&D programs and the ex-ante determination of program contents. Cybernetic SMMO enables an active shaping of the future according to societal developments, trends and needs.

Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Fragestellungen sind häufig nur durch eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Fachdisziplinen zu beantworten. Dies gilt besonders für Forschung im Bereich des Maschinenbaus und speziell im Bereich der Produktionstechnik. Zielsetzung ist dabei die Kombination verschiedener Kompetenzen aus unterschiedlichen Fachdisziplinen zur Lösung von Forschungsfragen und Problemstellungen einzusetzen, die sich an Schnittstellen der Fachdisziplinen ergeben. Voraussetzung hierfür ist die Integration dieser verschiedenen Fachdisziplinen in einer interdisziplinären Community. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird zunächst ein Analyseinstrument vorgestellt, dass zur Erfassung von Bedarfen zur Integration innerhalb der interdisziplinären Community dient. Drei Maßnahmen zur Unterstützung dieser Integration werden vorgestellt, deren Entwicklung auf Basis von Bedarfen der Community begonnen wurde und auf dieser kontinuierlich aktualisierten Grundlage iterativ fortgeführt wird. Das Ziel dieses Vorgehens ist die Unterstützung einer kontinuierlich optimierten Integration der Community im Exzellenzcluster ,,Integrative Produktionstechnik für Hochlohnländer“.

In the Cluster of Excellence (CoE) “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage countries” at RWTH Aachen University, scientists from different institutions investigate interdisciplinary ways to solve the polylemma’s tradeoffs between scale and scope as well as between plan and value oriented production. Next to the CoE’s four scientific subfields – the Integrative Cluster Domains (ICDs) – there are three additional subprojects performing cross sectional research and providing means for physical and virtual cross-linkage, the Cross Sectional Processes (CSP). Scientific cooperation in such a large and diverse consortium – as a meta-structure to the structures present in the member institutes – poses many challenges. To tackle these, an online learning and collaboration platform is developed, called the “Scientific Cooperation Portal”, to optimize the cluster-wide cooperation process. Technically building on the Liferay framework, the portal provides basic features like a member list and an event calendar as well as functionalities to help cluster members to gain a deeper understanding of the CoE’s current state regarding the diversity in interdisciplinary terminology, patterns in publication relationships, knowledge management and developed technologies.

In this paper we introduce the Scientific Cooperation Portal (SCP), a social enterprise software, and how it is integrated into our process of Scientific Cooperation Engineering. This process is applied in a large-scale interdisciplinary research cluster to ensure and manage the success of the interdisciplinary cooperation of over 180 researchers in different qualification levels. We investigate the influence of shared method competencies as an exemplary driver for collaboration. From the results we address both offline and online measures to improve interdisciplinary collaboration. We show how the knowledge generated from offline measures such as colloquia are transferred to the SCP and connected with other data available on the portal. This includes the handling of interdisciplinary terminologies, the disposability of publications and technology data sheets. The portal fosters knowledge exchange, and interdisciplinary awareness within the research cluster as well as technology dissemination both within the cluster, across the university, and into industry. The effectiveness of the approach is continuously assessed using a traditional balanced scorecard approach as well as additional qualitative measures such as interviews and focus groups.

In the age of digitalization, a huge amount of sentiments are expressed daily on university related topics using social media platforms. Particularly, posted statements from students and teachers can provide a potential source for evaluating universities. Twitter as one of the most popular microblogging platforms is a rich data resource for opinion mining. Stimulated by this fact, ways to analyze Twitter for information in the context of universities are sought. This paper looks at the analysis of social media sentiment as a complementary source for evaluating universities. The extracted results can support university rankings that experience criticism in terms of measuring vital indicators. This paper relays on sentiment analysis methods to analyze opinions published on Twitter. For this purpose, at first, tweets that are related to selected universities in Germany were collected. Second, the tweets were classified based on their sentiment into “Positive” and “Not Positive” tweets. At last, the results were analyzed providing information about the communicative topics at the universities. This paper gives an outlook to further research in context of an automated analysis of social media content in order to support the evaluation of universities.

After having finished studies, graduates need to apply their knowledge to a new environment. In order to professionally prepare students for new situations, virtual reality (VR) simulators can be utilized. During our research, such a simulator is applied in order to enable the visit of remote laboratories, which are designed through advanced computer graphics in order to create simulated representations of real world environments. That way, it is our aim to facilitate the access to practical engineering laboratories. Our goal is to enable a secure visit of elusive or dangerous places for students of technical studies. The first step towards the virtualization of engineering environments, e.g. a nuclear power plant, consists in the development of demonstrators. In the present paper, we describe the elaboration of an industry relevant demonstrator for the advanced teaching of engineering students. Within our approach, we use a virtual reality simulator that is called the “Virtual Theatre”.

In a world that is characterized by highly specialized industry sectors, the demand for well-educated engineers increases significantly. Thus, the education of engineering students has become a major field of interest for universities. However, not every university is able to provide the required number of industry demonstrators to impart the needed practical knowledge to students. Our aim is to fill this gap by establishing Remote Labs. These laboratory experiments are performed in Virtual Reality environments which represent real laboratories accessible from different places. Following the implementation of such Remote Labs described within our past publications the aim of this contribution is to examine and evaluate possibilities of controlling Remote Labs from arbitrary locations. These control mechanisms are based on the virtualization of two concurrently working six-axis robots in combination with a game pad remote controller. The evaluation of the virtual demonstrator is carried out in terms of a study that is based on practical tests and questionnaires to the measure learning success.

When graduates enter the working world, they have to apply their knowledge gained during their studies to new situations. Virtual Reality bears a great potential to simulate difficult situations, e. g. in dangerous environments. However, a major drawback of many Virtual Reality environments is the lack of natural navigation and free locomotion within the artificially designed world. Compared to a driving simulator, where users are sitting in a mock-up holding an actual wheel, users need to be able to move around freely if such situations are being simulated. Mixed Reality Simulators like the “Virtual Theatre” combine various technical devices. A head mounted display enables a three dimensional visualization of the simulation. The Virtual Theatre defines its unique characteristics through the omnidirectional treadmill. This omnidirectional floor consists of rollers, which are embedded centric to the middle point. Through this floor, the user is able to perform natural movements. By making use of a data glove, the user can actively take part in the events of his virtual experience based on hand movements. In the present work, an application of the Virtual Theatre is demonstrated based on a use-case, in which a plateau on “Mars” was implemented in terms of learning and exploring scenarios. The user is able to explore the Mars surface containing “Mars Rover” vehicles, orbiters and satellites. In the second major scenario, the user can maneuver a Mars rover through an obstacle course. In further development steps, the Virtual Theatre will be utilized for teaching purposes and to realize applications in terms of remote laboratories. Based on this, it is either possible to visit elusive points of interests like a nuclear power plant or to use experimental setups that are located at other universities remotely. These applications allow a holistic usage of innovative teaching approaches.

Technical universities are more and more focusing on engineering education as a primary discipline. All along with the integration of various innovative fields of application into the curriculum of prospective engineers the need for appropriate educational features into the studies also increases. Unlike exclusively theoretical studies as physics, mathematics or information sciences the education of engineers extensively relies on the integration of practical use-cases into the education process. However, not every university is able to provide technical demonstrators or laboratories for all of the various applications in the field of engineering. Thus, it is the aim of the current paper to propose a method that enables visiting a high variety of engineering laboratories based on Virtual Reality. A Virtual Reality simulator is used to create and emulate remote laboratories that can be located at arbitrary places far away from their Virtual Reality representation. This way, by melting real world demonstrators with virtual environments, we enable a physically and technically accurate simulation of various engineering applications. The proof of concept is performed by the implementation and testing of a laboratory experiment that consists of two six-axis robots performing collaborative tasks.

Evaluation results in the lecture “Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering” at RWTH Aachen University show that most students are unaware of the relevance of computer science in mechanical engineering as well as their importance and application in future careers. Therefore, the students’ motivation to deal with computer science is often low. Over the past decade computer games have become very popular for educational purposes and are often used to facilitate learning. By playfully applying computer science skills through game-based learning, students can experience the importance of computer science for their future careers. The approach of game-based learning has proven to be suitable to motivate students. Therefore, the relevance of computer science for students of engineering education at the RWTH Aachen University is brought closer to them by the online computer game “Pump it up!”. The game is part of the project-based task of the lecture “Computer Science in Mechanical Engineering”. Students are given the task of manufacturing pump adapter pipes as well as programming industrial robots which is embedded in a storyline. In the game, the students are employees of a start-up company, which receive the order to manufacture pump adapter pipes for a brewery. The paper gives an outlook on the next steps of the application.

Student attrition in mechanical engineering at German universities currently lies at about 40 %. A lacking sense of practical relevance for a future career are often named as reasons to quit studies. Over the past decade online games have become very popular for educational purposes. The approach of game-based learning, however, has proven to be suitable to motivate students. At RWTH Aachen University engineering students are imparted the relevance of computer science for their field through an e-learning environment including the online game Pump it up! The paper describes the conception and game design of the game including didactical and technical requirements related to it.

The continuing technological progress and changing conditions of studying have induced a demand for a realignment of academic teaching including the imparting of knowledge and competence transfer. The question “How do students learn?” gains a stronger focus of attention again. As a result, teachers take the tertiary didactical interventions and innovations into account. These trends are geared towards a “shift from teaching to learning” and call for a student-centred teaching (The Bologna Declaration 1999, p. 4). To meet the previously described developments, the Center for Learning and Knowledge Management at RWTH Aachen University presents a concept based on a didactical method mix. Within the framework of the course “Kommunikation und Organisationsentwicklung” (communication and organizational development, KOE) a combination of numerous methods established, already scientifically validated and positive evaluated methods plus new, innovative methods is used. The lecture is conceptualized mainly for first semester of mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University. The sessions discuss various content-related aspects of organizational development such as work and cooperation processes in a company or repercussions and challenges of worldwide division of labor. The didactical conception of the lecture combines the following elements: Based on the “Flipped Classroom” approach a participatory learning curve emerges for the students. The course consists of two central elements. First, there is the “KOE-Online-Lecture”, a video recording of the traditional lecture. In order to prepare for the “KOE-Discussion-Forum” they are able to watch the “KOE-Online-Lecture” in advance. The “KOE-Discussion-Forum” constitutes the second element; it takes place every week and provides the opportunity to discuss open questions or to hold lively debates. In practical-oriented tutorials for large groups the learning contents can be reflected and deepened. The plenary “KOE-Discussion-Forum” addresses several learning-types with different didactical concepts and demonstrates various ways of studying (Flechsig, K.-H. 1996, Kleines Handbuch didaktischer Modelle, Neuland). In the context of this paper the didactical concept of “KOE”, which hosts over 1,400 students, is described in detail in its complex methodological structure. Future efforts for a continuous optimization of the concept and an adaption of the target audience are delineated.

University education has changed vastly in the last years. Constantly growing student numbers, the necessity of on-professional competences especially in engineering education and new technical possibilities have influenced the development of new didactical concepts. To cope with these circumstances a didactical set, which combines as many benefits as possible from different didactical methods would be preferred. Therefore, different field tested as well as tailored didactical elements are combined and integrated with the objective to enhance the quality of engineering education. This new approach is applied within the lecture Communication and Organisation Development (KOE), which is frequented by up to 1,400 first semester students of the faculty of mechanical engineering. The lecture is an inherent part of the bachelor-curriculum of mechanical engineering to fulfill the RWTH Aachen University’s objective to foster on-professional competences from the very beginning of a student’s career. After defining goals for restructuring the lecture from a blended learning perspective, the original and content-orientated lecture was redesigned in the winter term 2012/2013 and enhanced by implementing the flipped classroom concept with a discussion forum in the winter term 2013/2014. Students can access relevant learning documents via an online platform and can make use of the discussion forum in terms of a participatory interaction event. This method-mix is based on the cube model developed by Baumgartner and Payr (1996), which combines different perspectives and levels of a diverse teaching approach. The KOE lecture was evaluated twice (beside the common university-wide evaluation for lectures, the blended learning approach was assessed explicitly) and practical oriented elements were rated very positively. Making use of the cube model as well as the results of the evaluation led to an identification of further demands for optimisation. Following these demands, the related lab tutorial starting in the upcoming winter term will be redesigned. Students are supposed to work in a fictional mechanical engineering enterprise and different duty cycles shall be simulated. The overall plan is to construct a production robot using Lego Mindstorms. This paper – based on the applied cube model – describes the current didactical method-mix, presents demands identified by recent evaluation and introduces developments and optimizations following the blended learning approach for engineering education.

The digitalization of higher education in general and Blended Learning in particular have been focused for a long time. Next to applying new technology, focusing on interdisciplinary competences during studies has always been part of engineering studies. The lecture Communication and Organization Development (KOE) is a constituent part of the Bachelor’s studies of the faculty of mechanical engineering, addressing 1500 freshmen of the RWTH Aachen University. Since decades the lecture KOE is part of frequently used revision along with an agile progression of applied mixed methods and new demands using the previously mentioned teaching development. The number of first semester students is still increasing and freshmen entering the university are partially minors (17 years old) due to the shortened school career. To master these and further challenges successfully, the didactical method mix is based on a cube model developed by Baumgartner and Payr (1996), which combines different levels and perspectives of a student-centred teaching approach. Elements such as the flipped classroom concept (Bretzmann, J. (2013): Flipping 2.0. Practical strategies for flipping your class, Bretzmann Group, LLC) (Bergmann. J., Sams, A. (2012): Flip your classroom. Reach every student in every class every day. International Society for Technology in Education, ASCD) along with the discussion forum, which were introduced during winter term 2013/2014, have become a permanent feature of KOE. Moreover, blended learning elements were increased by attaching a two-stage business simulation called ROBOFLEX to bring the theoretical elements to an immersive, problem-based learning approach. This paper presents the cube model’s current status as part of the method mix of KOE. Additionally, based on last year’s evaluation results, the paper examines student’s reactions towards the tutorial class ROBOFLEX as well as its potential for optimization. Furthermore a general analysis of the evaluation results from winter term 2013/2014 compared with 2014/2015 is performed to identify scope for the further development of KOE.

In Germany, there are more than four million people (almost 6 % of the entire population) living with dyscalculia, a disorder which alludes numbers as well as general arithmetic and is closely related to dyslexia (Die Zeit Online, “Ziffern ohne Sinn”. Retrieved online, May 21st, 2015, from http://www.zeit.de/2013/29/dyskalkulie-zahlenblind-teilleistungsstoerung). The estimated number of unreported cases is probably even higher. Medical researchers talk about a “forestalled elite” since these people are commonly not less intelligent than non-handicapped individuals. Still, they rarely make it to a university-entrance diploma; they get lost on the way because of missing standby facilities offered in primary and continuative schools (Die Zeit Online, “Verhinderte Elite”. Retrieved online, May 21st, 2015, from http://www.zeit.de/2003/42/C-Legasthenie-Schule). They require special needs and attention in order to learn and show their de facto potential. This paper deals with the dyscalculic-friendliness of learning environments provided by Mixed-Reality Simulators. After a presentation of the scientific state of the art on the specific needs of affected students, it will be elaborated in how far virtual environments used in the education of mechanical engineering students can sufficiently not only meet those needs but support them in their study.

Blended Learning – ein jeder versteht es anders. Dementsprechend gibt es unzählige Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten im Rahmen digitaler, interaktiver, interdisziplinärer und individualisierbarer Lehre. An der RWTH Aachen genießt die kontinuierliche Verbesserung der Lehre einen hohen Stellenwert. In diesem Sinne steht der Einsatz von didaktisch fundierten Methoden des Blended Learning ganz besonders im Fokus der Bemühungen. Eine Umsetzung moderner, hybrider Lehre, die Präsenz- und Selbstlernphasen Dank der Möglichkeiten der Neuen Medien miteinander vereint, wird engagiert durch das Rektorat und die 2014 ins Leben gerufene Blended Learning Initiative realisiert. Durch dieses Projekt erhalten motivierte Lehrende ein breites Angebot an Hilfestellungen. Neben zentralen Stützen in der Hochschulverwaltung und dem IT Center, fungieren Einrichtungen wie das CiL (Center for Innovative Learning Technologies), ExAcT (Center of Excellence in Academic Teaching) und der Service ,,Medien für die Lehre“ an der RWTH für die Lehrenden als zentrale Ansprechpartner [1]. Dieser umfangreiche Support erleichtert den Lehrenden an der RWTH die Beantwortung zum Beispiel folgender Fragen: Wie gestalte ich Blended Learning passend zur eigenen Person und den Lehrinhalten? Welche technischen und organisatorischen Herausforderungen ergeben sich hieraus? Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt am Beispiel der Lehrveranstaltung Kommunikation und Organisationsentwicklung im Maschinenbaustudium einen Einblick in die Erfahrungen mit Blended Learning an der RWTH Aachen.

The first three industrial revolutions were characterized by the invention of water and steam engine, centralized electric power infrastructure and mass production as well as digital computing and communications technology. The current developments caused by the fourth revolution, also known as “Industry 4.0”, pose major challenges to almost every kind of work, workplace, and the employees. Due to the concepts of cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things and the increasing globalization, remote work is a fast-growing trend in the workplace, and educational strategies within virtual worlds become more important. Especially methods as teaching and learning within virtual worlds are expected to have an enormous impact on advanced education in the future. However, it is not trivial to transfer a reliable educational method from real to the virtual worlds. Therefore, it is important to adapt, check and change even small didactic elements to guarantee a sustainable learning success. As there is a lot of ongoing research about using virtual worlds for the training of hazardous situations, it has to be figured out which potential those environments bear for the everyday education of academic staff and which competencies and educational support trainers need to have respectively can give in those worlds. The used approach for this study was to investigate the trainers’ didactic perspective on mixed-reality teaching and learning. A total of ten trainers from different areas in Germany took part in this study. Every participant pursued both roles: the teaching and the learning part in a virtual learning environment. In order to assess the learning success and important key factors the experiment yields data from the participants’ behavior, their answers to a semi-structured interview and video analysis, recorded from the virtual world. Resulting data were analyzed by using different qualitative as well as quantitative methods. The findings of this explorative research suggest the potential for learning in virtual worlds and give inside into influencing variables. The online gaming experience and the age of participants can be shown to be related to participants’ performance in the virtual world. It looks like the barriers for the affected trainers are low regarding utilization of virtual worlds. Together with the mentioned advantages and possible usages, the potential of these setups is shown.

The majority of mixed reality scenarios have been mainly the subject of game engines. ‘Mixed Reality’ describes the combination of virtual environments and natural user interfaces. Here, the user’s field of view is controlled by his natural head movements via a head mounted display. Data gloves e.g. allow direct interaction with virtual objects and omnidirectional treadmills enable unrestricted navigation through a virtual environment by natural walking movements. To evaluate perspectives and potential for the use of mixed reality settings within engineering education an experimental study has been carried out, focusing on the impact of spatial presence and flow on cognitive processes. To assess the effects of natural user interfaces on cognitive processes, a two-group-plan (treatment and control group) was established. The mixed reality simulator was used as main stimulus of the treatment group whereas the control group used a laptop as interaction device. The learning environment was kept constant over both groups. The data were collected and interpreted with quantitative methods. Constraints of data collection exist since the influence of the hardware can only be evaluated within a set of independent variables, which consists of a combination of different user interfaces to a mixed reality simulator. Thereby not all of the disruptive factors could be eliminated. In this paper the study and the detailed results are described, which showed advantages especially regarding affective and motivational factors of virtual environments for cognitive processes. In particular, the depth of the resulting spatial presence and the phenomenon of flow are discussed. The paper closes with a discussion of the question, to what extend such innovative technologies establish new possibilities for educational sciences and pedagogics, especially focusing on engineering education and the field of virtual experiments.

In consideration of future employment domains, engineering students should be prepared to meet the demands of society 4.0 and industry 4.0 – resulting from a fourth industrial revolution. Based on the technological concept of cyber-physical systems and the internet of things, it facilitates – among others - the vision of the smart factory. The vision of “industry 4.0” is characterized by highly individualized and at the same time cross-linked production processes. Physical reality and virtuality increasingly melt together and international teams collaborate across the globe within immersive virtual environments. In the context of the development from purely document based management systems to complex virtual learning environments (VLEs), a shift towards more interactive and collaborative components within higher educational e-learning can be noticed, but is still far from being called the state of the art. As a result, engineering education is faced with a large potential field of research, which ranges from the technical development and didactical conception of new VLEs to the investigation of students’ acceptance or the proof of concept of the VLEs in terms of learning efficiency. This paper presents two corresponding qualitative studies: In a series of focus groups, it was investigated which kinds of VLEs students prefer in a higher education context. Building upon the results of the focus groups, a collaborative VLE was created within the open world game Minecraft. First screenings of the video material of the study indicate a connection between communicational behavior and successful collaborative problem solving in virtual environments.

The usage of different kinds of media is part and parcel of teaching and learning processes in higher education. According to today’s possibilities of information and communication technologies, mobile devices and app-usage have become indispensable for a big share of the population in everyday life. However, there is little empirical evidence on how students use mobile devices for learning processes in higher education, especially in engineering education. Within the project “Excellent Teaching and Learning in Engineering Sciences (ELLI)”, three large technical universities (RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr-University Bochum, Technical University Dortmund) follow different approaches in order to improve the current teaching and learning situation in engineering education. Many of the corresponding measures are media-related. In this context, a broad understanding of media is applied which includes hardware as well as software. Amongst others, research is conducted on the topics of mobile learning, virtual laboratories, virtual collaboration, social media services and e-learning recommendation systems for teaching staff. In order to match the literature and results of the project with the current habits of study related media usage of students, the three universities conducted a survey in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). The KIT’s questionnaire covers more than 50 education-related media and IT-Services and has been applied at over 20 universities in 6 countries. For the survey conducted within the ELLI project, the topic of mobile learning was added to the questionnaire. Over 1.500 students were asked about their habits of study related media usage in terms of frequency of use and level of satisfaction. Regarding the topic of mobile learning, the students were asked for the kind of hardware and the kind of apps they use for higher education purposes. The 130 identified apps were clustered regarding subject and function. This paper presents the main results concerning the students’ general habits of study related media usage and their mobile learning habits. It concludes with a special focus on the possibilities mobile devices offer to the improvement of engineering education.

The e-learning market consists of a wide variety of products, and it is still growing. To find an e-learning solution which fits the particular and situational demands is a very time consuming task, especially for teachers. Moreover, the technical and operational differences between the e-learning solutions are often not easy to understand from the product data and thereby consequences of choices are maybe not clear to the teacher. To solve these problems, a web-based recommendation system for teachers of engineering education is under development. This system is planned to support the decision making process of teachers about the use of an e-learning system. The precondition for setting up a recommendation system is that the desired entries (e.g. products, solutions, music or movies, etc.) are comparable to allow the algorithm to recommend: The current approach is to develop an e-learning scheme and compare the solutions based on this scheme. The determining of the necessary information for each e-learning solution has to be at least a half-automated process to keep the information up-to-date. Since expensive human time is needed to handle the necessary information, some approach with data and text mining as well as text analytics is promising. After the determining phase, each e-learning solution is represented by its data sheet. Apart from the e-learning solutions, also a teacher’s requirements have to be comparable to e-learning solutions to allow the algorithm to recommend. That is why a web-based questionnaire is utilized to catch the teachers’ requirements. A visual user-flow programming language is under development to provide an adequate environment for the development of the questionnaire and as an interface between the e-learning scheme, questionnaire and user-flow. The next step is to develop a functional prototype for the essential text analysis process to proof the concept. It is also required to analyze the current state of the e-learning scheme further to identify clusters of similar subjects, and to identify all critical properties to provide individual solutions for these.

In recent years, student laboratories have been established as effective extracurricular learning areas for the promotion of educational processes in STEM fields. They provide various stimuli and potentials for enhancements and supplements in secondary school education (Reuter Sebastian et al.: Robotic Education in the DLR_SCHOOL_LAB RWTH AACHEN. Proceedings of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED 2015, in Process (2015)). Most courses, however, do not offer full accessibility to all students. Those who e.g. suffer from visual impairment or even sightlessness find themselves not being able to participate in all tasks of the courses. On this account, the Center for Learning and Knowledge Management and Institute of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering at RWTH Aachen University have redesigned one of their robotics laboratory courses as a first step towards accessibility. This paper presents the work in progress of developing a barrier-free course design for visually impaired students. First feedback discussions with the training staff shows that even little changes can sometimes have a huge impact.

Many University lecturers in Germany face the challenge of teaching very large classes, sometimes including 1000 or even more students. They often have to cope with a very high level of noise, bad room conditions, an extremely low level of participation as well as interaction and feedback. Some lecturers therefore try to overcome these challenges by using technology in their classroom. Previous research has already focused on evaluating the use of audience response systems (ARS) in a traditional but very large engineering lecture. This sort of technology has proven to be an effective tool in order to e. g. increase student motivation, give them additional support in the learning process and on the other hand give the lecturer feedback about the students’ learning progress as well as possible crucial points of the lecture. This paper, however, goes one step further. It analyzes the use of ARS in a flipped classroom setting of a large engineering lecture for first-year-students. After having completed almost two thirds of the flipped classroom lecture, students were being questioned about their experiences and opinions about the use of ARS in this particular educational setting. The standardized questionnaire included questions issuing e. g. comprehension, motivation, frequency, enjoyment, interaction, involvement as well as usability aspects. First results show that e. g. the majority of the students feel that clicker questions foster their comprehension, motivate them to be attentive and increase the quality of the lecture. When comparing the results to findings from previous research in a traditional lecture, however, one thing becomes apparent: The evaluation of the use of ARS in the in a flipped classroom setting has turned out to be slightly less positive than that of the traditional lecture. This finding will be particularly discussed and may even call for further research in the designated field of interest. In a first step, the lecture itself will be described considering content, background and general settings. Subsequently, the survey instrument and methodology will be presented. In a third step, the results of the survey will be presented and discussed. Finally, further research fields will be identified.

This paper introduces an efficient collision watchdog predicting impacts between fast moving industrial robots. The presented approach considers the manipulator states in a three dimensional space. Tailored bounding volumes allow fast collision detection and distance calculations. The watchdog makes use of the internal rotary sensors of each robot to build an integrated world representation. Based on this information it is able to monitor the non-predictable behavior of all involved robots.

Cyber Physical Systems und Internet of Things entwickeln sich rasant vorwärts und bringen gleichzeitig die Entwicklung einer neuen künstlichen Intelligenz voran, der der ,,verteilten künstlichen Intelligenz“. Hervorstechende Merkmale sind dabei die räumliche Verteiltheit und Heterogenität ihrer Subkomponenten. Das Konzept einer verteilten Intelligenz ist dabei nicht neu, kann man doch für die Tierwelt feststellen, dass hochentwickelte Formen von Intelligenz gerade mit einer höheren Verteiltheit ihrer ,,intelligenz-erzeugenden Komponenten“ einhergehen. Neuartig ist, dass die räumliche Verteilung der Komponenten nicht beschränkt und die Zusammensetzung der Systeme hochgradig wandelbar ist. Ein ,,intelligenter Agent“ ist dabei durch das Vorhandensein von Sensorik, Kognition und Aktuatorik gekennzeichnet. Aufbauend auf die Theorien der neuen verteilten künstlichen Intelligenz entstehen derzeit neue Modelle hybrider Teams, bei denen Gruppen aus mehreren autonomen Robotern, Web-Agenten und Menschen miteinander kooperieren. Beispiele für die Anwendung intelligent kooperierender Teilkomponenten sind die industrielle Produktion und die Intralogistik, aber auch vermehrt Bereiche des Alltags wie etwa autonome Fahrzeuge.

Traditional approaches model consciousness as the outcome either of internal computational processes or of cognitive structures. We advance an alternative hypothesis – consciousness is the hallmark of a fundamental way to organise causal interactions between an agent and its environment. Thus consciousness is not a special property or an addition to the cognitive processes, but rather the way in which the causal structure of the body of the agent is causally entangled with a world of physical causes. The advantage of this hypothesis is that it suggests how to exploit causal coupling to envisage tentative guidelines for designing conscious artificial agents. In this paper, we outline the key characteristics of these causal building blocks and then a set of standard technologies that may take advantage of such an approach. Consciousness is modelled as a kind of cognitive middle ground and experience is not an internal by-product of cognitive processes but the external world that is carved out by means of causal interaction. Thus, consciousness is not the penthouse on top of a 50 stores cognitive skyscraper, but the way in which the steel girders snap together from bottom to top.

Consciousness is not only a philosophical but also a technological issue, since a conscious agent has evolutionary advantages. Thus, to replicate a biological level of intelligence in a machine, concepts of machine consciousness have to be considered. The widespread internalistic assumption that humans do not experience the world as it is, but through an internal ‘3D virtual reality model’, hinders this construction. To overcome this obstacle for machine consciousness a new theoretical approach to consciousness is sketched between internalism and externalism to address the gap between experience and physical world. The ‘internal interpreter concept’ is replaced by a ‘key-lock approach’. Here, consciousness is not an image of the external world but the world itself. A possible technological design for a conscious machine is drafted taking advantage of an architecture exploiting self-development of new goals, intrinsic motivation, and situated cognition. The proposed cognitive architecture does not pretend to be conclusive or experimentally satisfying but rather forms the theoretical the first step to a full architecture model on which the authors currently work on, which will enable conscious agents e. g. for robotics or software applications.

Nowadays, time interval data is ubiquitous. The requirement of analyzing such data using known techniques like on-line analytical processing arises more and more frequently. Nevertheless, the usage of approved multidimensional models and established systems is not sufficient, because of modeling, querying and processing limitations. Even though recent research and requests from various types of industry indicate that the handling and analyzing of time interval data is an important task, a definition of a query language to enable on-line analytical processing and a suitable implementation are, to the best of our knowledge, neither introduced nor realized. In this paper, we present a query language based on requirements stated by business analysts from different domains that enables the analysis of time interval data in an on-line analytical manner. In addition, we introduce our query processing, established using a bitmap-based implementation. Finally, we present a performance analysis and discuss the language, the processing as well as the results critically.

The RoboCup Logistics League is one of the youngest application- and industry-oriented leagues. Even so, the complexity and level of difficulty has increased over the years. We describe decisive technical and organizational aspects of our hardware and software systems and (human) team structure that made winning the RoboCup and German Open competitions possible in 2014.

In the RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL), games are governed by a semi-autonomous referee box. It also records tremendous amounts of data about state changes of the game or communication with the robots. In this paper, we analyze the data of the 2014 competition by means of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). KPIs are used in industrial environments to evaluate the performance of production systems. Applying adapted KPIs to the RCLL provides interesting insights about the strategies of the robot teams. When aiming for more realistic industrial properties with a 24/7 production, where teams perform shifts (without intermediate environment reset), KPIs could be a means to score the game. This could be tried first in a simulation sub-league.

A new trend in automation is to deploy so-called cyber-physical systems (CPS) which combine computation with physical processes. The novel RoboCup Logistics League Sponsored by Festo (LLSF) aims at a such CPS logistic scenarios in an automation setting. A team of robots has to produce products from a number of semi-finished products which they have to machine during the game. Different production plans are possible and the robots need to recycle scrap byproducts. This way, the LLSF is a very interesting league offering a number of challenging research questions for planning, coordination, or communication in an application-driven scenario. In this paper, we outline the objectives of the LLSF and present steps for developing the league further towards a benchmark for logistics scenarios for CPS. As a major milestone we present the new automated referee system which helps in governing the game play as well as keeping track of the scored points in a very complex factory scenario.

The RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL) has seen major rule changes increasing the complexity, e. g. by raising the number of product variants from 3 to almost 250, and introducing new challenges like the handling of physical processing machines. We describe various aspects of our system that allowed to improve the performance in 2015 and our efforts to advance the league as a whole.

In this positioning paper we present the AUDIME project approach in which we plan to evaluate the usability and social acceptance of smart and wearable devices in the context of mass-casualty-incidents. AUDIME aims to provide a platform which captures, evaluates, and provides data from various sources on an incident site. This way, triage, patient monitoring, information sharing and communication are to be improved, which simplifies decision making at executive staff level. In contrast to previous projects, AUDIME does not replace any low-tech or non-tech approaches (e.g. triage cards,) but enhances the information handling by capturing analogue information using smart or wearable devices and distributing digitalized data to qualified recipients in real-time.

Research in the challenging field of industrial engineering and engineering management often needs the expertise from more than one discipline. Various disciplinary competences have to be combined to answer research questions and to solve specific (engineering) problems at the interfaces of different professional disciplines. The disciplines being part of the research and problem solving process have to be consequently integrated to form an efficiently performing interdisciplinary consortium. Current research states that this interdisciplinary integration process has to include various dimensions. This paper introduces three sets of interdisciplinary integration tools. Together they cover all of the dimensions explained before and lead to an enhanced interdisciplinary integration. Having just rolled out a set of integration tools, measurement tools are adjusted to evaluate and optimize them continually.

Die Arbeit in der Industrie der Zukunft wird zunehmend unter den Bedingungen der Industrie 4.0 entwickelt und gestaltet. Hierhinter verbirgt sich eine umfassende Vernetzung und Digitalisierung der Produktion, die auf den technischen Grundlagen cyber-physischer Systeme und des Internets der Dinge basiert. Bezogen auf die industrielle Arbeit wird damit eine Entwicklung hin zu kooperativen Arbeitssystemen, bestehend aus Menschen, Maschinen/Robotern und IT-Systemen möglich. Dabei gilt es für Forschung und Entwicklung, pilotartige Demonstratoren zu entwerfen und hinsichtlich der Implikationen für den Faktor Arbeit in der Industrie der Zukunft zu untersuchen. Zu diesem Zweck sind entsprechende wissenschaftliche und industrielle Demonstratoren von Teilvorhaben zu flankieren, in denen insbesondere geeignete Organisations- und Lernformen, Fragen der Akzeptanz und Sicherheit von kooperativen Arbeitssystemen sowie wirtschaftsräumliche Implikationen dieser neuen Arbeitssysteme für den Standort Deutschland untersucht werden. Da Industrie 4.0 den Menschen als integralen Bestandteil der Produktion sowie als Erfahrungs- und Entscheidungsträger versteht, ist zur Untersuchung derselben ein ganzheitliches und verschiedene Ebenen und Disziplinen berücksichtigendes Untersuchungsdesign wesentlich – nicht zuletzt auch deswegen, um die tradierte Technikzentrierung bei der Gestaltung von Arbeitssystemen zu überwinden. Das Anliegen dieses Beitrags ist es, eine der vielen Facetten von Industrie 4.0 durch die Vorstellung von zentralen Zielen zu Arbeit in der Industrie der Zukunft zu beleuchten und letzteres der Scientific Community vorzustellen.

Transdisciplinarity is a research strategy that is increasingly employed in a multitude of fields. Communication between the actors is of importance when it comes to ensuring successful collaboration. In order to assess communication processes in a transdisciplinary research alliance, a process screening questionnaire has been developed that can be easily evaluated and thus allows timely feedback to the actors. The process screening questionnaire has been utilized repeatedly on a specific research alliance. This article describes the scientific basis for the development of the process screening questionnaire, exemplifies its application, gives a summary of the results of this specific use, and summarizes benefits and future measures of improvement.

In almost all industrial sectors handling processes are automated through the use of robotic systems. However, in the manufacture of fiber-reinforced structures with complex geometries, the handling of dry, pre-impregnated semi-finished textiles is still performed mainly manually resulting in long processing times, low reproducibility and high manufacturing costs. A previous AiF research project “AutoPreforms” aimed at the automation of the entire production process of components with uniaxial curvature. The scope of this AiF research project “AutoHD” is to fully automate the draping and handling process of complex, three-dimensional fiber composite structures with high degrees of deformation and multiaxial curvature (e.g. car wings). Based on a draping simulation wrinkles can already be recognized during the draping process and counteracted by the developed mechanical structure. This is achieved by the utilization of the bending stiffness of textile semi-finished products, a flexible end-effector and a built-in optical quality assurance process. In this paper the main aspects of preforming processes are described revealing the challenges of the project. With examples of currently existing systems, the objective and innovative contribution of the project are described. The paper serves as initial presentation of the project and its solution approaches.

The increasing transport demand and the need for higher cargo volume, together with the need to standardize dimensions and handling processes are characteristics of the current intermodal freight transport. To develop sustainable and resilient transport system, a modal shift and a strengthening of intermodal transport is necessary. Therefore appropriate loading units have to be developed. This includes not only combining the advantages of existing loading units, complying with current European legislation, but also satisfying the needs of the market. This paper presents a new intermodal transport system designed within the European project TelliSys, including variations of a new loading unit as well as an innovative super low deck tractor and a compatible chassis. Additionally a comparison of usage and technical and economical characteristics between utilized intermodal loading units and the new loading units will be given.

A new approach is presented in which existing systems for error detection are used to build up a closed loop control for quality optimization in the production process of NCF. Only with this online system, productivity and product quality can be increased. The fibre material is screened for fibre disorientation and gaps and deviations in areal weight at different positions alongside the production line using state of the art equipment for error detection. Additionally, the machine-parameters are monitored and the yarn tension of both reinforcement fibres and stitching yarn are measured continuously. An automated and self-learning control is developed that automatically adjusts the settings of the production machine. By this, a minimum of errors in the textile is achieved. In addition, the quantitative description generated in the process is used to develop an error map for each batch of material produced. This error map allows for production waste to be minimized, as the produced material can be automatically sorted into different quality grades, meeting the demands of different customers. Furthermore, the material cutting can be adjusted that only low quality areas are removed. By this, only high quality material will be used for the component part production. An entire roll of non-crimp fabric would not be declared as waste. The quality control is realized by an automatic control device. By a pressure roll in front of the warp knitting unit the rovings are homogenized.

Als Gegenkonzept zu einer rein akademisch und disziplinär geprägten Wissenserzeugung kann die Produktion von Wissen im Anwendungskontext gesehen werden. Dabei werden die Interessen gesellschaftlicher, wirtschaftlicher und politischer Akteure in den Forschungsprozess integriert (vgl. T. Jahn, Transdisziplinarität in der Forschungspraxis. In: M. Bergmann (Hrsg.): Transziplinäre Forschung – Integrative Forschungsprozesse verstehen und bewerten. Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2008, S. 7, 22). Solchen transdisziplinären Perspektiven wird ein besonders positiver Einfluss auf die Wissensproduktion und Innovation unterstellt (vgl. F. J. van Rijnsoever, L. K. Hessels, Factors associated with disciplinary and interdisciplinary research collaboration. In: Research Policy, 40 (3), 2011, S. 463). Dieser Beitrag diskutiert ein grundlegendes Verständnis von Transdisziplinarität und beleuchtet die Vielfalt transdisziplinärer Konstellationen im Förderschwerpunkt ,,Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel“ des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF). Zu Beginn wird das Verständnis von Innovationsfähigkeit im Kontext des demografischen Wandels aufgezeigt. Abschließend werden die Ziele und die Struktur des Sammelbandes erläutert.

Über die Laufzeit des Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprogramms ,,Arbeiten – Lernen – Kompetenzen entwickeln. Innovationsfähigkeit in einer modernen Arbeitswelt“ haben sich in den einzelnen Förderschwerpunkten unterschiedliche Strukturen etabliert. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, diese in einem Überblick darzustellen, zu erläutern und anhand exemplarischer Aufgaben zu konkretisieren. Somit wird eine Grundlage geschaffen, Kommunikations- und Kooperationsprozesse zwischen und über diese Strukturelemente hinweg zu gestalten und für die (Weiter-) Entwicklung künftiger Förderschwerpunkte zu nutzen.

Innovation-Process-Models have become an increasingly important issue of research. The main point of criticism on process-models is that innovation-processes are not rigid and phases do not run compulsorily linear, but rather in recursive loops and with disruptions. Therefore, existing unidirectional innovation-process-models need to be modified. The aim of this paper is to develop a cybernetic innovation-process-model, which is based on the famous concepts of Wheelwright/Clark (Innovation-Funnel) and Cooper (Stage-Gate-Process). Suitable measuring-instruments are required to gain the central cognition of cybernetics that viable systems have an invariant structure. This paper sheds light on shortcomings of already existing unidirectional innovation-process-models and as current studies promulgate, such as Vanhaverbeke already 2013 pointed out in his work “Rethinking Open Innovation beyond the Innovation Funnel”, it is time for a new step forward by enriching and broadening Open Innovation. A possible next step thus can be the implementation of a cybernetic innovation-process-model.

Im Kontext des demografischen Wandels (,,Älter, Weniger, Bunter“) und damit einhergehender veränderter Erwerbsbiografien, neuer und kontinuierlicher Qualifizierungsmöglichkeiten und -pfade, der zunehmend digitalisierten Arbeitswelt, generationenübergreifender sowie interkultureller Zusammenarbeit und vielen weiteren Faktoren, werden neue und flexible Formen der Kompetenzentwicklung notwendig. Letztlich besteht auf dem Gebiet der neuen und flexiblen Formen der Kompetenzentwicklung der Bedarf von Gestaltungskonzepten, die u. a. den Wissensaustausch, die Kompetenzentwicklung und Kollegialitätsbeziehungen heterogener Individuen und Organisationen fördern. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages, Resultat einer zweieinhalbstündigen Workshop-Session im Rahmen der Förderschwerpunkt-Tagung 2014 des BMBF-Förderschwerpunktes ,,Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel“, wird neben einer theoretischen Einführung in die Thematik ein besonderer Fokus auf die erzielten Ergebnisse des Workshops gelegt. Dabei werden die bearbeiteten Handlungsfelder vorgestellt, deren Ergebnisse gelistet und abschließend die Ergebnisrückführung in das Memorandum des Förderschwerpunktes vorgestellt (vgl. Becke, G., Bleses, P., Cernavin, O., Ducki, A., Langhoff, T., Klatt, R., Nerdinger, F. W. (2015): Memorandum: Förderschwerpunkt Innovationsfähigkeit im demografischen Wandel. In: Jeschke, S., Richert, A., Hees, F., Jooß, C.: Exploring Demographics. Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven zur Innovationsfähigkeiten im demografischen Wandel, S. 119-121.).

Strategic investment decisions are characterized by high innovation potential and long-term effects on the competitiveness of enterprises. Due to the uncertainty and risks involved in this complex decision making process, the need arises for well-structured support activities. A method that considers cost and the long-term added value is the cost-benefit effectiveness estimation. One of those methods is the “profitability estimation focused on benefits – PEFB”-method developed at the Institute of Management Cybernetics at RWTH Aachen University. The method copes with the challenges associated with strategic investment decisions by integrating long-term non-monetary aspects whilst also mapping the chronological sequence of an investment within the organization’s target system. Thus, this method is characterized as a holistic approach for the evaluation of costs and benefits of an investment. This participation-oriented method was applied to business environments in many workshops. The results of the workshops are a library of more than 96 cost aspects, as well as 122 benefit aspects. These aspects are preprocessed and comparatively analyzed with regards to their alignment to a series of risk levels. For the first time, an accumulation and a distribution of cost and benefit aspects regarding their impact and probability of occurrence are given. The results give evidence that the PEFB-method combines precise measures of financial accounting with the incorporation of benefits. Finally, the results constitute the basics for using information technology and data science for decision support when applying within the PEFB-method.

Fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) are used in an increasing number of applications due to their advanced light-weight properties. Beside classical deployments in high-value industries like aerospace and medical engineering, FRP materials are pushed towards mass production by the automotive industry. To mass-produce FRP products, textile structures are commonly used as semifinished products, such as multiaxial non-crimp fabrics (NCFs). However, poor repeatability and missing textile defect detection in the automated manufacturing of FRP components are major cost factors and challenge economically the series production. Reduction of these cost factors is not yet possible due to the lack of closed-loop control systems. There is currently no real-time quality monitoring system capable of ensuring quality in NCF production. The purpose of this study is to develop tools and concepts for real-time quality control of non-crimp fabrics. Therefore, a real-time machine-vision system has been developed with the purpose of detecting relevant quality features in a textile sample in deterministic time conditions. The embedded system ensures the execution of all process steps, i.e. image acquisition, processing, and evaluation, under real-time conditions. The main focus of this work is laid on the real-time algorithms for an accurate and robust detection of the fiber orientation under industrial conditions. The developed real-time system has been tested on a textile sample and an assessment of the measurement uncertainty has been performed. Results show that the proposed system can successfully assess common textile quality features.

Simulations are used in various fields of education. One approach of improving learning with simulations is the development of natural user interfaces, e.g. driving or flight simulators. The Virtual Theatre enables unrestricted movement through a virtual environment by a Head Mounted Display and an omnidirectional floor. In the experimental study presented (n $$= 38$$), the effects of objective hardware characteristics were being tested in two groups. The task was the same: Remembering positions of objects after spotting them in a maze. One group fulfilled the task in the Virtual Theatre, the other group on a laptop. Personal characteristics (gaming experience, locus of control) and perception measures for immersion (spatial presence, flow) were also assessed. Analyses show that the Virtual Theatre indeed leads to more spatial presence and flow, but has a negative effect on the task performance. This contradicts the common assumption that immersion leads to better learning.

In order to study new methods of telemedicine usage in the context of emergency medical services, researchers need to prototype integrated telemedicine systems. To conduct a one year trial phase – intended to study a new application of telemedicine in German emergency medical services – , we used off-the-shelf medical devices and software to realize real-time patient monitoring within an integrated telemedicine system prototype. We demonstrate its feasibility by presenting the integrated real-time patient monitoring solution, by studying signal delay and transmission robustness regarding changing communication channel characteristics, and by evaluating issues reported by the physicians during the trial phase. Where standards like HL7 and the IEEE 11073 family are intended to enable interoperability of product grade medical devices, we show that research prototypes benefit from the use of web technologies and simple device interfaces, as they simplify product development for a manufacturer and ease integration efforts for research teams. Embracing this approach for the development of new medical devices eases the constraint to use off-the-shelf products for research trials investigating innovative use of telemedicine.

Production companies in high-wage countries face growing complexity in their production conditions due to increasing variance and shorter product lifecycles. To enable the needed flexibility in production with respect to short-term changes, factory planning has to be transparent in such a way that the effects on production are traceable. Therefore, a modular planning approach combined with a continuous information management is necessary. The combination of the approaches of Condition Based Factory Planning and Virtual Production Intelligence provides the basis for an analysis of process dependencies during factory planning projects. This analysis is supposed to increase transparency of information flows and to reach traceability.

Trotz der aktuellen Bestrebungen zur vernetzten Planung und Steuerung von Produktionsprozessen im Zuge der Virtuellen Produktion und Digitalen Fabrik unterstützen Planungs- und Simulationsanwendungen häufig immer noch lediglich die Analyse und Optimierung einzelner Planungsaspekte. Um den gegenwärtigen Herausforderungen von immer komplexeren und sich schnell ändernden Produktionsumgebungen zu begegnen, benötigen Fabrikplaner hingegen Werkzeuge, die eine integrierte Sicht und damit die Möglichkeit der frühzeitigen und validen Bewertung eines ganzen Planungsszenarios bieten. Dafür müssen sich Informationssysteme auf ein einheitliches Verständnis der domänenspezifischen Konzeptualisierung stützen, was zu einer der zentralen Herausforderungen der Fabrikplanung führt: eine konsistente und kohärente Informationsmodellierung entlang des gesamten Planungsprozesses ausgehend von den angedeuteten heterogenen Datenquellen. Der Ansatz der Virtual Production Intelligence (VPI) liefert ein grundlegendes Konzept für ein derartiges Informationssystem, mit dem Daten entlang von Planungsprozessen integriert, analysiert und bewertet werden können. Der VPI-Ansatz stellt dabei die semantische Interoperabilität zwischen verschiedenen Planungs- und Simulationsanwendungen sowie deren individuellen Datenmodellen und -strukturen her. In diesem Beitrag wird die Informationsmodellierung der VPI anhand der Modellierung von Ontologien für die Fabrikplanung präsentiert. Zudem wird dargestellt, wie diese Ontologien in den VPI-Ansatz eingebettet und innerhalb des webbasierten Informationsproduktes, der VPI-Plattform, implementiert sind. Die so erzeugte konsolidierte Informationsgrundlage befähigt Fabrikplaner zu neuartigen Analysen und Darstellungen der Planungsergebnisse und bietet somit eine verbesserte Entscheidungsunterstützung.

The pace at which next-generation Internet of Things networks, consisting of wirelessly distributed sensors and devices, are being developed is speeding up. More and more devices produce data in automated manners and the demand of smartphones and wearable devices is continuously increasing. With respect to volunteer notification systems (VNS), the resulting vast amounts of data can be utilized for profiling and predicting the whereabouts of people that, combined with machine learning algorithms, complement artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision systems. Hence, VNS benefit from keeping pace with the current developments by using the corresponding data streams in order to improve decision making during the volunteer selection process. In emergency scenarios, the velocity, low latency and reaction times of the system are essential, which results in the need of online stream-processing and real-time computational solutions. This paper will focus on a basic concept for implementing a VNS approach into a scalable, fault-tolerant environment that uses state-of-the-art analytical tools to process information streams in real-time as well as on demand, and applies machine learning algorithms for an AI-based volunteer selection. This work concentrates on leveraging open source Big Data technologies with the aim to deliver a robust, secure and highly available enterprise-class Big Data platform. Within the given context, this work will furthermore give an insight on state-of-the-art proprietary solutions for Big Data processing that are currently available.

On the way to the fourth industrial revolution, one major requirement lies in reaching interoperability between hardware and software systems. Especially real-time propagation of shop floor information in top-level production planning and control systems as well as the consolidation of distributed information into a consistent data basis for comprehensive data analysis are still missing in most production environments. Existing approaches to serve interoperability through standardized interfaces are limited by proprietary data exchange protocols and information models. Within industrial manufacturing and automation, standardization attempts between these systems are primarily focused on industrial interfaces like OPC/OPC-UA. However, the aggregation of data created by devices like sensors or machinery control units into useful information has not been satisfactorily solved yet as their underlying models are carried out using different modeling paradigms and programming languages, thus inter-communication is difficult to implement and to maintain. In this work, an integration chain for data from field level to top-level information systems is presented. As Manufacturing Execution Systems or Enterprise Resource Planning tools are implemented in higher programming languages, the modeling of field level information has to be adapted in terms of a semantic interpretation. The approach provides integration capabilities for OPC-conform data generated on the field level. The information is extracted from low level information systems, transformed according to object-oriented programming paradigms and object-relational standards and finally integrated into databases that allow full semantic annotation and interpretation compatible to a common information model. Hence, users on management levels of the enterprise are able to perform holistic data treatment and data exploration along with personalized information views based on this central data storage by means of a reliable and comfortable data acquisition. This increases the quality of data and of the decision support itself, as more time remains for the actual task of data evaluation.

Due to globalisation, supply chains face an increasing number of risks that impact the procurement process. Even though there are tools that help companies address these risks, most companies, even larger ones, still have problems adequately quantifying the risks on their current process as well as on alternative process. The aim of our work is to provide companies with a software supported method for quantifying procurement risks and establishing adequate strategies for risk mitigation at an optimal cost. Based on the results of a survey on risk management practices and industrial needs, we developed a tool that enables them quantifying these risks. The tool makes it easier to express key risks via a process model that offers an adequate granularity for expressing them. A simulator incorporated in our tool can efficiently evaluate these risks through Monte-Carlo simulation techniques. Our main technical contribution lies in the development of an efficient Discrete Event Simulation (DES) engine, together with a Query Language that can be used to measure business risks from the simulation results. We show the expressiveness and performance of our approach by benchmarking it on a set of cases that are taken from industry and cover a large set of risk categories.

The reliability of quality management in industrial processes mainly depends on information about the traceability, precision and accuracy of a measurement system as well as on its systematic bias. The progressive development of networking and sensing in industrial machinery facilitates a quality-related process monitoring regarding information of measurement systems and singular sensor nodes. Hereby, integration on the information level is mandatory. Furthermore, information from the shop floor and from enterprise applications is needed to provide a consistent and integrated quality analysis. Thereby, these systems use different standards and technologies for exportation and propagation of data. Besides, integrative quality management and data analysis require enriched data that does not only comprise, for example, the measured value and its standard-dependent unit on the sensor level; rather, additional information is needed (e.g. the production process or the time and place of measurement). In this paper, a framework is presented that facilitates the semantic integration and analysis of measurement and enterprise data according to real-time requirements. Semantic technologies are used to encode the meaning of the data from the application code. Herewith, the data is automatically annotated using terms and concepts taken from the application domain. Furthermore, a semantic integration and transformation process is facilitated. Thus, subsequent integration and, most importantly, analysis processes can take advantage of these terms and concepts using specialized analysis algorithms. Besides, the conceptual application of the presented framework and processes in a high-pressure-die-casting scenario is presented.

On-line analytical processing is in the focus of research over the last couple decades. Several papers dealing with summarizability problems, cube computations, query languages, fact-dimension relationships or different types of hierarchies have been published. Nowadays, analyzing time interval data became ubiquitous. Nevertheless, the use of established, reliable, and proven technologies like OLAP is desirable in this respect. In this paper, we present an OLAP system capable to process time interval data. The system is based on bitmaps, enabling performant selection and fast aggregation. Moreover, we introduce a two-step aggregation technique, which enables the calculation of relevant measures in the context of time interval data. We evaluate the performance of our system using different bitmap implementations and a real-world data set. To our knowledge, there are no other systems available enabling OLAP and providing correct results considering the summarizability of time interval data.

Over the past decades, several disciplines like artificial intelligence, music, medicine, ergonomics or cognitive science dealt with problems concerning analyses of data associated with time intervals. Topics like pattern recognition, comparison, quality, or visualization are in focus of current research. Using these techniques in the context of data-driven decision support is quite rare even though the importance of data to support better decision making can be enormous. Reasons lie above all in limited insufficient tooling support, expensive data processing, and inapplicable requirements. In this paper, we discuss the use of time interval data and name difficulties arising when processing such data for data-driven decision support. We discuss and present solutions for overcoming the identified problems and enabling the usage of time interval data for data-driven decision support. We introduce a time interval data analysis model that provides fast access to the raw time interval data but especially to aggregated time series, mostly needed when making meaningful decisions.

The complexity of modern production conditions demands integrative approaches in the fields of simulation and analysis to improve product quality and production efficiency. Existing concepts of virtual production meet this need to some extent. However, problems of application interoperability and data compatibility remain. One approach is the definition of a standardized file format, which is costly to create and to maintain. Other approaches avoid the need for a uniform standard by mapping data structures onto a canonical data model. Although these methods allow for simulation and examination of individual elements, the analysis of the integrated process remains a challenge. Here, the data analysis solutions from the field of the so-called intelligence-solutions can prove useful. Within this paper, a use case scenario taken from the field of laser cutting is presented. Herein, the planning for laser cutting is conducted in a modular format. A new concept is presented that addresses the requirements aforementioned and that conforms to the principles of the integration and examination of data. The new concept, called Virtual Production Intelligence, is formed by combining the concept of virtual production with “intelligence solutions” or the goal of gaining knowledge through the analysis of already completed processes.

Modern production of high pressure die casting parts raise new challenges regarding planning, scheduling and analyzing of the underlying manufacturing process. The smart factory approach and the research and development pursuit of the fourth industrial revolution necessitate the refurbishment and upgrade of already existing manufacturing systems and the introduction of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in automation systems in order to achieve a holistic, company-wide information exchange and a pervasive traceability of product and manufacturing data. According to this approach, previous programmable logical controls (PLC), established business intelligence solutions and existing manufacturing execution systems (MES) with mutually lacking interfaces are integrated into a new ecosystem for planning, executing and analysis applications. Due to the fact that each system persists on its own user interface, the implementation has to be strongly coupled to a user centered design of innovative human machine interfaces, joined into one distributed, networked application. In this paper, an agile information processing framework for foundry purposes is presented. Every underlying application is accessible via web-based user interfaces providing control of each single system. This leads into a service orientated architecture triggering the individual underlying systems as services, which are connected using web communication technology to exchange data along a shared information model. The data storage is modular to ensure scalability and interoperability with other manufacturing departments. During the actual manufacturing process, different services like inline data mining analysis are deployed and the results are visualized in user demanded dashboards and reports. For new requirements in business intelligence and MES the developed interfaces are provided in a unique library and a content management system. The described architecture enhances the development of new information applications, accelerates the planning and execution process and is completely orientated to the demands of users, as fast planning procedures and analysis driven user interfaces.

To gain a better and deeper understanding of cause and effect dependencies in complex production processes it is necessary to represent these processes for analysis as good and complete as possible. Virtual production is a main contribution to reach this objective. To use the Virtual Production effectively in this context, a base that allows a holistic, integrated view of information that is provided by IT tools along the production process has to be created. The goal of such an analysis is the possibility to identify optimization potentials in order to increase product quality and production efficiency. The presented work will focus on a simulation based planning phase of a production process as core part of the Virtual Production. An integrative approach which represents the integration, analysis and visualization of data generated along such a simulated production process is introduced. This introduced system is called Virtual Production Intelligence and in addition to the integration possibilities it provides a context-sensitive information analysis to gain more detailed knowledge of production processes.

This paper introduces the process of adopting and implementing modern text mining approaches of analysis within the Cluster of Excellence (CoE) Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass (TMFB) at RWTH Aachen University and presents initial results of the analysis of research output by use of common clustering algorithms, namely Principal Component Analysis and k-means. As one main part of this paper the data driven approach is classified into benchmarking efforts, which are part of the research work of the so called Supplementary Cluster Activities. The SCA, supporting the cluster management, are initiated in order to promote interdisciplinary collaboration of CoE researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds. This cross-linking is aided by means of knowledge engineering and knowledge transfer strategies, such as the exploration of synergies and benchmarking of research results as well as progress. In this course an adoption of current benchmarking efforts to the specific cluster research framework conditions is described. At this, in case of differing data sources according to those used in widespread business organisational benchmarking, possible TMFB data sources are outlined and a selection for analysis is reasoned. While benchmarking is usually differentiated in internal and external benchmarking, in this case focus lies on internal analysis of publications in order to reflect research work. Benchmarking of publications is used and implemented to identify (best) methods, practices and processes of CoE to improve the research organization. Second major part and central question within the scope of this paper is in which way text mining respectively clustering algorithms are sensitive applicable to TMFB publications and are able to be used as benchmark for research clusters. Thus thematically priorities of TMFB researchers will be investigated in order to create an overview according to research topics, keywords and methods. In case of an outlook further steps, e. g. dealing with generated results, data visualisation or further acquisition of data corpora, are formulated.