Mechatronics - Automation
Mechatronics is a science incorporating innovations stemming from advanced industrial engineering and related key sectors. These, in turn, account for 50% of the staff employed by Bavaria’s manufacturing sector. In creating their market-making products, mechatronic companies work with such leading research institutes as DLR (Germany’s Aerospace Agency), as those of the Fraunhofer society, as iwb’s centers of application in Augsburg, Munich und Nuremberg, and as the large number of dedicated chairs at the state’s institutions of higher education.
The mechatronics and automation cluster has established itself as a platform for the national and international-level dispensing of information and of forging of ties among the state’s companies and institutes of science. These have joined in undertaking more than 40 projects involving the fields of automotive, aerospace, environmental, electronics and industrial engineering, and leading to the planning, development and production of mechatronic systems exhibiting the highest degrees of operating reliability.
Bavaria is at the forefront of the development of mechatronics – and mechatronics is at the forefront of Bavaria’s industrial development. Companies in mechatronics‘ component industries—industrial, automotive and electronics engineering—employ a total of 610,000 people (equivalent to 50% of the total for Bavaria’s manufacturing sector) and have total annual sales of EUR 170 billion (60% of the manufacturing sector’s total).
The state’s R & D institutes are leaders in the following fields of mechatronics:
- technologies imparting greater levels of performance and flexibility to manufacturing and assembly systems
- robotics and other forms of automation, with these including response-capable control and regulation systems and light-gauge propulsion technologies
- mechatronic-based braking systems, drive-by-wire-technologies and other automotive-use breakthroughs
- such medical technologies as reporting-capable implants, and instruments and systems used in minimally-invasive and in ICT and robot-assisted surgery
- such interdisciplinary areas as mechatronic packages, methods and tools employed in concurrent engineering
There are a number of reasons why Bavaria offers such a large and attractive market for innovative products. One prime reason: the companies leading the sectors applying mechatronic innovations—with these including industrial, automotive and electronics engineering and medical technologies—are headquartered in the state or have set up major operations in it. These companies include both global players and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) occupying niches or serving as suppliers.
The innovations being applied stem from technologies transferred and information supplied by regional and state-wide networks set up to optimize working relationships between the state’s mechatronic companies and institutes of science:
- Cluster Mechatronics & Automation e.V. / interdisciplinary
- Automation Valley Northern Bavaria
- Eastern Bavaria Center of Expertise in Mechatronics in Cham
- Microsystem technologies in Landshut
- BAIKA Bavarian Initiative for Innovation and Cooperation in the Automotive Supply Industry via Bayern Innovativ GmbH / Nuremberg
- BAIKEM Bavarian Initiative for Innovation and Cooperation in Electronics and Microtechnologies via Bayern Innovativ GmbH / Nuremberg
- Forum MedTech Pharma/Nuremberg
- European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE) / Nuremberg
Bavaria’s universities, universities of applied sciences and independent research institutes have an unexcelled breadth of expertise in the technologies comprising mechatronics. They are, for that reason, sought-after partners for companies.
Universities:
- The Garching campus of TUM (Technical University Munich), faculties for industrial engineering, electronics and IT; degree program in mechatronics
- University Erlangen-Nuremberg, faculty of technologies, institute of industrial and electronics engineering and IT; degree program in mechatronics
- University of Würzburg, institute of IT, robotics and telematics
- University of Bayreuth, faculty of applied sciences
Universities of applied sciences:
- University of Applied Sciences in Augsburg; degree program in mechatronics
- Georg-Simon-Ohm University of Applied Sciences in Nuremberg; degree program in mechatronics
- University of Applied Sciences in Munich, departments of industrial, automotive and aviation technologies
- Universities of Applied Sciences in Amberg-Weiden, Aschaffenburg, Deggendorf, Regensburg; degree programs in mechatronics
Other research institutes:
- DLR (Germany’s Aerospace Agency), Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, Oberpfaffenhofen
- Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM), Micro-mechatronics Center in Oberpfaffenhofen and ancillary institute in Munich
- Center of application of production technologies, maintained by TUM and iwb (institute for machine tools and business administration), Augsburg
- Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Component Technologies (IISB), Erlangen and Nuremberg
- Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, Erlangen
- 3-D MID Association for Research into Molded Interconnect Devices
- BLZ Bavarian Laser Center, Erlangen
- Fraunhofer Institute for Research into Silicates (ISC), Würzburg
Research consortiums:
- FORWERKZEUG Bavarian Consortium for Research into Flexible Tooling Systems
- FORBIAS Bavarian Consortium for Research into Biologically-derived and Sensor-based motor-powered assistance
- FORNEL Bavarian Consortium for Research into Nanoelectronics
- FORSIP Bavarian Consortium for Research into the Situating, Individualization and Personalization of Human-Machine Interactions
- FORLOG Bavarian Consortium for Research into Supra-Adaptive Logistic Systems
- FORCARBON Bavarian Consortium for Research into Carbon-Based Materials
A pool of high-qualified mechatronics personnel
With total dedicated workforces of 150,000 and 100,000, Munich and Nuremberg are the largest venues of mechatronic production in Bavaria. In mechatronics, as in related and other fields of technology, Bavaria’s personnel are famed for their degrees of qualification. These are provided by the state’s systems of post-secondary and vocational education:
- Bavaria’s institutions of higher education turn out highly-qualified engineers and scientists.
- Intermeshing in-classroom education and on-the-job training, Bavaria’s dual system of vocational education produces high-capability staff members.
Munich is the headquarters of Germany’s Office for Patents and Trademarks, of the European Patent Office, of the Fraunhofer Society’s Office for Patents from German Research, of the Max Planck Institute of International Patent Law, and of central offices of the Fraunhofer and Max Planck societies.
Start-ups and companies setting up shop in Bavaria flock to the premises forming part of Bavaria’s centers of expertise and incubation:
- gate center of technologies and incubation in Garching
- IGZ Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen center of innovation and incubation in Erlangen
- WestBavaria center of technologies in Nördlingen
The hubs of mechatronic production and applications in Bavaria are the following regions
- Munich (automotive, aerospace and industrial engineering; medical technologies),
- Nuremberg (electronic and industrial engineering; propulsion, automation and medical technologies)
- Augsburg/ Swabia (industrial and aerospace engineering, robotics, propulsion technologies)
- Initiatives / programs
Bavaria’s government has made the development of mechatronics one of the thrusts of its high-tech campaign. To that end, the government provided in 2000 – 2005 funds amounting to some EUR 50 million.
The government also provides a generous amount of support to projects devoted to developing and applying mechatronics. This support is channeled through the
- Bavarian Foundation for Research
- Bavarian Technology Support Program
Access to financing
As the large number of VC companies based in the state details, Bavaria is Germany’s center for venture capital. One of sector’s pacesetters is Bayern Kapital GmbH. As is the case with TBG Technologie-Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft, Bayern Kapital matches amounts provided by private investors on an up to 3:1 basis.
Bavaria’s government has made the development of mechatronics one of the thrusts of its high-tech campaign. To that end, the government provided in 2000 – 2005 funds amounting to some EUR 50 million.
The government also provides a generous amount of support to projects devoted to developing and applying mechatronics. This support is channeled through the:
Access to financing
As the large number of VC companies based in the state details, Bavaria is Germany’s center for venture capital. One of sector’s pacesetters is Bayern Kapital GmbH. As is the case with TBG Technologie-Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft, Bayern Kapital matches amounts provided by private investors on an up to 3:1 basis.
...is available from Cluster Mechatronics & Automation e.V. and from „Key Technologies in Bavaria“ . This databank contains entries on Bavaria’s mechatronics companies.
