Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS

As a pioneer for safe, intelligent cognitive systems for production automation, Fraunhofer IKS focuses on the following topics:

• Automation systems
• Industrial sensors

Fraunhofer IKS facilitates prediction & decision support by developing trustworthy AI models using clinical data. 

Will the cars of the future drive autonomously? This vision of the future will only become reality if autonomous driving is safe. Fraunhofer IKS is therefore working on adaptive software architectures for vehicles.

Quantum computers could enable new applications. Fraunhofer IKS is researching safe software applications for quantum computing so that calculations can be relied upon.

In the field of defense, Fraunhofer IKS is researching how to better protect people through the use of trustworthy and transparent intelligent systems.

With the Fraunhofer IKS Playground, the institute offers access to experimental prototypes and innovative concepts from cutting-edge research.

We reduce technological risks and increase trust in your innovation—ensuring reliable systems and a standards-compliant market launch without delays.

Fraunhofer IKS regularly offers exciting and varied workshops on topics in our key areas Automation, Health, Mobility and Quantum Computing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper outlines the activities involved in developing a dependable person detection system within an industrial context. It highlights the individual steps of the ML Safety Lifecycle’s iterative approach to safety assurance.

With the Fraunhofer IKS Playground, the institute offers access to experimental prototypes and innovative concepts from cutting-edge research.

The CARS workshop is a forum focusing on architecture, methods and development techniques for safety-related automotive embedded systems and applications. The 10th edition of CARS is collocated with EDCC 2026, Canterbury, UK.

In the white paper “Ensuring Trustworthiness of AI-Enhanced Embedded Systems”, Infineon Technologies and Fraunhofer IKS present how to apply a unified safety lifecycle on an AI-Based Motor Control Unit (AI-MC) illustrative use case.

You can find all upcoming Fraunhofer IKS envents on our event overview.

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Fraunhofer IKS is getting a new institute building on the Fraunhofer campus in Garching near Munich. Dind all information about our new building here:

You can find all the Institute's news on our News page. Read on directly.

Have you always wanted to leave your footprints behind and make the world a little safer? Then apply to the Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems IKS in Munich!