Press Releases

At t Hannover Messe 2026, the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT will demonstrate how secure data spaces, edge and cloud infrastructures, and industrial data ecosystems can already be translated into concrete production applications. The focus is on cost-effective deployment in manufacturing, the digital retrofitting of existing equipment, and interoperable integration into data ecosystems such as Catena-X and Factory-X. Fraunhofer CCIT will present its solutions at the booth of its technology partner German Edge Cloud in Hall 16, Stand A16, offering industry professionals insights into practical industrial applications of secure data spaces and edge-cloud architectures.

Starting in January 2026, three Fraunhofer Clusters of Excellence will launch a joint project to support companies in implementing the EU requirements for digital product passports (DPPs), which will become mandatory in 2027. The project will focus on both technical and organizational areas of action for DPP data management. On this basis, additional data points will be added to the core requirements of the DPP in order to develop new service offerings, particularly in production engineering. The Fraunhofer Clusters of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT, Programmable Materials CPM, and Circular Plastics Economy CCPE are involved in the project.

Join the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies (CCIT) at EMO Hannover, from 22 to 26 September 2025, at their joint stand (Hall 6, Stand B18), where you’ll see its member institutes — Fraunhofer IWU, IAIS, IMS, and IIS — bring a sovereign digital infrastructure to life for manufacturing processes. Using the Edge Cloud Continuum (ECC), you can combine IoT technologies, secure data spaces, and machine learning to build a future-ready cloud system for many applications. The Fraunhofer CCIT showcases multiple exhibits to show how smart digital infrastructure, combined with advanced production technologies and manufacturing processes, can revolutionise operations.

Thousands of company data records from different sources, spread across various departments: keeping track of all the data is time-consuming and ties up a lot of resources. In order to use valuable data to optimize services or make better business decisions, IT specialists have to program complex database queries. This is changing with a new technology from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT: With the AI-supported “LLM Insight Expert,” developed by experts from Fraunhofer IAIS and KI.NRW, large amounts of data can be searched in no time using a chat function. Using natural language significantly reduces the need for specialist knowledge.

At the Hannover Messe from 31 March to 4 April 2025, the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT will demon-strate the performance of the edge-cloud continuum (ECC) and its key role in digital infrastructure. The ECC combines IoT technologies, secure data spaces and machine learning methods to create a future-proof cloud system for various applications. The Fraunhofer CCIT exhibits can be found at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft joint booth (Hall 2, B24) in the section for AI for industrial innovations.

With the global population continuing to grow, food waste not only presents a resource problem but also carries a significant cost factor. Now, a new AI-supported multisensor application developed by the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT is being used to screen perishable goods such as fruit and vegetables. This technology carefully detects quality features even under the surface, making it possible to predict the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. It can be used on entire crates at the touch of a button — and customized with the addition of other sensors.

Moving away from resource-intensive visual and manual quality control and toward efficient inspection using a magnetic field and AI, this is the innovative solution offered by a new technology application developed by experts from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT in the "Marquise" research project.

Experts from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT have developed a smart sensor that measures vibrations in mechanical components and analyzes them on-site using artificial intelligence (AI). This makes it possible to identify anomalies autonomously and transmit this information to the cloud so appropriate corrective action can be taken.

Intelligent traffic sensing and vehicle communication for autonomous driving (Vehicle-to-everything, V2X) require dynamic traffic information in real time. This means that data-collection sensors, communication technologies, as well as data fusion and traffic model creation algorithms are paramount. In the TraffIRNet (Traffic Infrared Radar Network) research project, the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT is exploring the potential of the 5G mobile radio standard in collective and scalable traffic sensing using a Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) network.

Forming presses are widely used as key elements of industrial production pro cesses. From automotive technology to refrigerators, almost every product we encounter contains formed parts. The purchasing costs of these machines can reach double-digit millions, and it takes a great deal of time to set up and ad just precisely as needed. Given such a high level of investment, buyers expect machinery of this kind to keep running efficiently for a long time without any loss in quality. At the Hannover Messe 2022, the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excel lence Cognitive Internet Technologies CCIT will demonstrate how cognitive transformation of industrial processes can improve the efficiency of forming machines (Hall 5, Booth A06). The technology that serves as the basis for the exhibit is smartNOTCH – a cognitive T-slot.