Articles – Magazine of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS

The future of production
On the way to Industry 5.0?

Industrial production is undergoing profound change. With rapidly advancing technologies and a changing social environment, industrial automation needs to be rethought in order to respond more flexibly to new requirements and challenges—keyword: adaptive production.

Industry 4.0

March 6, 2026

Armaments
Speeding Up Defense: The Software-Defined Revolution

In times rife with geopolitical tensions, it is essential for the defense industry to quickly address pressing customer needs. Read on to find out how software-defined defense can deliver innovation through shorter cycles that still keep up with safety standards.

Artificial intelligence

February 11, 2026

Cobots
PROTECT: Reliable AI-powered person detection for safe and efficient human-robot collaboration

Flexible, efficient, and above all reliable and safe: That’s what deployable person recognition in industrial production should look like. In the PROTECT project, Fraunhofer IKS and Fraunhofer IGCV have taken a big leap toward delivering these capabilities.

Industry 4.0

January 30, 2026

Safe Intelligence Day 2026
How AI and Safety Balance Each Other in Automation

On February 5, 2026, the next Safe Intelligence Day will take place at Fraunhofer IKS. The focus of the showcases, presentations, and discussions will be generative AI in automation. Three aspects play an essential role: generative AI in the safety engineering process, as a basis for troubleshooting assistance in production, and applied to code generation in manufacturing.

January 7, 2026

I Stock 1393513219 Bartlomiej Wroblewski

Award
Hybrid Quantum Algorithms: Do Classical Optimization Algorithms Perform Better with “Quantum Maps”?

A master's thesis created at Fraunhofer IKS and the Technical University of Munich has been honored with the Quantum Future Award from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. The thesis investigates the question of how conventional computers and quantum devices can meaningfully work together to solve problems faster.

Quantum computing

December 17, 2025

I Stock 1205564620 peterschreiber media klein

Quantum Computing
Are quantum solutions realistic in production?

Quantum machine learning (QML) offers a promising pathway for early adoption in industrial settings. For QML solutions to be effectively implemented in production, dedicated access to quantum hardware is essential. The quantum hardware ecosystem is rapidly evolving, with most of the infrastructure hosted by cloud providers. However, this reliance on cloud services presents challenges, including latency, security concerns, and high costs which can impede real-time applications. Is there a way to circumvent these limitations?

Quantum computing

December 3, 2025

Portrait Johannes Karg
»It´s important that AI decisions are transparent«

Artificial Intelligence fascinated the medicine graduate during his studies. This fascination remained even after he graduated: today, Dr. Johannes Karg conducts research at the Fraunhofer IKS on a wide range of applications for AI in medicine.

AI in medicine

Employee portraits

November 27, 2025

Key Visual des Fraunhofer IKS Playground

Interview with Mario Trapp
„We wanted to open up a kind of window into our research engine room“

Fraunhofer IKS has introduced its Playground. This platform is especially designed for companies to explore the institute's offerings. In an interview, Institute Director Prof. Dr. Mario Trapp discusses the concept behind the Fraunhofer IKS Playground.

Safety engineering

November 21, 2025

Artificial Intelligence
Quantum computing and AI

There is great hope: even if quantum computers initially “merely” improve the simulations of quantum mechanical processes, they could, among other things, help to train AI systems more efficiently in the future. The first small quantum computers are already commercially available. But what potential do they actually have today?

Quantum computing

November 13, 2025

Safety Engineering
Generative AI as a gap filler

Artificial intelligence opens up new economic opportunities for companies. However, the integration of AI raises significant safety concerns in safety-critical systems. This results in a gap between economic potential and safety, the economic safety gap. But generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI, GenAI) can help close it.

Safety engineering

November 6, 2025

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