On March 16th, the ZAL TechCenter opened its virtual doors for the second time. In joining our moderator Lukas Kästner, the participants explored the building: Yet another chance to gain exciting insights into the (collaborative) work of the resident companies. Of course, there was always the opportunity to direct questions to the presenting experts.
After a welcome in the newly designed reception area, cameras switched to the first project presentation in Hall A: Here, Christopher Petermann (engineer for innovation and research projects at Lufthansa Technik) and Dr. Leonid Lichtenstein (head of the Data & Power Networks team at ZAL GmbH) introduced the joint research project ReSa. For this government-funded project, a team of experts currently develops an independent retrofittable sensor system architecture for Predictive Maintenance. With ReSA, a base is being set for integrating additional sensors into an existing aircraft infrastructure.
The next stop in this virtual tour featured DLR’s virtual cabin mockup. Here, the institute investigates the integration and connection of data in the cabin design process to an immersive virtual environment. Presenters Mara Fuchs and Florian Beckert (both research associates at the DLR Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics) demonstrated how experts can move around the virtual cabin and interact with the various components. This approach enables a better understanding of the interdependencies between components, as well as the consequences that result from individual changes for the overall system.
The final presentation took place at the Manufacturing Lab of ZAL GmbH. Thorsten Scharowsky (head of the Advanced Materials Department at ZAL GmbH) showcased ZALs manufacturing cell of currently three robots, which is used to investigate how the printing of complex parts on uneven surfaces can succeed. He also described the advantages that result from the robots’ collaboration: For example, by combining greater accuracy and higher speed in one single manufacturing process.
