Fraunhofer Group for Production
Fraunhofer Group for Production

EVOLOPRO - Evolutionary self-adaptation of complex production processes and products

EVOLOPRO

The aim of the Fraunhofer lighthouse project "EVOLOPRO" is to develop a biological manufacturing system that complements existing Industry 4.0 work within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as part of the research focus on biological transformation with new biological mechanisms.

The seven participating institutes want to use evolutionary biological mechanisms to develop a new generation of production systems: Biological Manufacturing Systems (BMS) are to be given the ability to adapt independently to new requirements and environmental conditions in the same way as biological organisms. Unlike in nature, these systems do not need many millennia to do this, but instead undergo evolution within a very short space of time. A special feature is that manufacturing errors are not seen as rejects, but - as in biological development - as a valuable resource for adaptation and further development. 　

For this form of evolution, EVOLOPRO not only relies on new algorithms based on biology, but also on the principle of the digital twin, which now interacts with a digital environment. According to the principle of "survival of the fittest", i.e. the continuation of the best adapted, the differences between the target component and its actual state are to be analyzed and evaluated in the digital world.

In order to validate the calculated results, demonstrators will be created in three different pilot applications: a single component, the assembly of several individual components and a temporary interaction of several individual components with each other. 　

As a biological manufacturing system can be extremely complex, the Fraunhofer IPT, which is leading the EVOLOPRO project, is joined by other institutes focusing on production and materials engineering as well as information technology, each contributing their own expertise.

The project was selected as one of three from a total of 18 project applications and will be funded within the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with a total of eight million euros over a period of four years from January 2019.  

Participating institutes