Activities - Overview

In the pre-Christmas cold, SWR journalist R. Moos visited the TechCampus of HHN and interviewed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hermann Koch-Gröber. The exhaust technology expert answered with a clear “yes and no”.

You can find more information and a video of the article here. (hkg)

In the "AI and Mobility" virtual building, students and researchers from the ASE degree program present outstanding projects relating to artificial intelligence in mobility. The virtual building offers exciting insights into current developments and innovative solutions that make the potential of AI in this area tangible.

From intelligent assistance systems to pioneering mobility concepts - the lab demonstrates the versatility of the degree program and promotes interdisciplinary exchange. Discover the virtual lab, get encouraged (inspired) and play an active role in shaping research!

Further information can be found in the virtual AI lab (in the "AI&Mobility" building). (nst)

Machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the major trends today. Wherever machines are expected to react intelligently to complex situations, ML has become indispensable. This also applies to the automotive sector. As one of the founders, Prof. Stache precisely represents this branch at the ZML, and the center is also interdisciplinary and cross-faculty. If you are interested in teaching and research at the ZML or would like to get involved, you can find more information here. (nst)

Due to its size (1:5, approx. 60cm long) and equipment, the RC model offers sufficient space and possibilities to develop vehicle systems. The forces occurring during operation are of a magnitude that can be measured in a similar way to a real vehicle. Students develop sensors and software to record the driving status (miniaturized Correvit sensor, differential GPS RTK, SensorCluster) as well as chassis and drive systems (ABS, EPS, torque vectoring) and network them.

The chassis offers many adjustment options (toe, camber, roll moment distribution as well as anti-squat and -dive, etc.) so that their influence on driving behavior can be investigated and experienced in the future. The aim is to work with students to build a fully networked test vehicle for driving dynamics tests with autonomous driving functionality that represents the most important vehicle systems of passenger cars. (gtt)

Waveguides (cables) are used for the error-free transmission of high data rates. Knowledge of the characteristic impedance and reflection behavior of the line is necessary to maintain signal integrity and radiation (EMC). These effects can be clearly demonstrated in practice with the aid of a voltage pulse. A miniature pulse generator in the nanosecond range was developed in order to be able to convey the effects in the lecture. (pre)

The annual ASE summer party was a successful conclusion to the lecture period, bringing together students, staff, lecturers and alumni as well as friends and sponsors from industry. In addition to various specialist presentations on current research topics, the laboratories of the degree program were open. The professors also offered steaks and grilled sausages for consumption, which the guests enjoyed with a cool drink. The evening ended in a relaxed atmosphere with many interesting conversations in a cozy atmosphere.. (cmu)

Mathematics is "subtle and useless". This is how Cardano described his discovery of complex numbers almost 500 years ago, without which there would be no internet, cell phones, GPS or autonomous driving today. Interactive visualizations and simulations have been developed to show what mathematical tools are capable of and how they can be used so that students can playfully experience as early as possible in their studies that centuries-old theories make things possible today that their inventors could never have imagined. The picture shows the spectrogram of a music signal that can be digitally filtered and modulated - a technology without which mobile telephony, for example, would be impossible. The basis for this is the Fourier transformation, which is based on Cardano's complex numbers. (vst)

A semester abroad, which is integrated into the ASE degree program, offers a unique experience. The so-called mobility window, i.e. elective subjects that can be taken and credited at one of our more than 50 partner universities, even allows you to do this without losing time during your studies. Anyone who has ever dreamed of studying in the USA, Mexico, China, South Korea, Vietnam or Malaysia (or in England, the Netherlands, Finland, Latvia, Spain, Greece or Slovakia or in around 30 other countries) is in good hands with our International Office. (ame)

https://www.hs-heilbronn.de/de/studium-im-ausland-te

As part of the BUGA:log project, the university is developing self-driving, electrically powered transport vehicles to test new ways of supplying neighborhoods in urban areas. The development of electronic and software components for the control and autonomous navigation of the vehicles was carried out in laboratory and final theses, among other things. These were also carried out in cooperation with other degree courses (SE, VB) and with companies. The aim is to professionally apply the knowledge acquired from various specialist areas in practice. (rzo)

Battery technology will be decisive for the Heilbronn-Franken economic region in the coming years, not only in the automotive sector, but also in infrastructure. Knowledge of the system dynamics of cells (range or state of charge, ageing, internal resistance, ....) and competent handling of these in technical systems (energy storage for mobility or for energy technology) is now available as a new course "Systemic testing of battery cells" from the 4th semester. The basic laboratory is intended to open the door to future research activities. As a first research topic, the dynamics of a sodium-based cell will be investigated in a student project. (ada)

In the "AI and automated driving" laboratory, an autonomous test vehicle is being developed on the basis of a professionally converted VW Passat. Our research focuses on the perception of the vehicle's surroundings, in particular using artificial intelligence.

Thanks to innovative technologies and extensive sensor technology, the vehicle can demonstrate autonomous partial functions both on the university campus and on public roads. Many students have been actively involved in this project, gaining valuable practical experience in the development of autonomous systems.

Further information can be found on the lab website and in our virtual AI lab (in the "AI&Mobility" building). (nst) 

Electrified cargo bikes are an important element of future urban mobility. With low emissions and a small footprint, they can logistically serve the last mile. However, even at low speeds, evasive maneuvers may be necessary in pedestrian zones or in mixed traffic, which can lead to the vehicle tipping over (see image). 

Many of the generally smaller manufacturers do not have the development resources to develop, adapt and implement the cost-optimized electronic safety systems that have been tried and tested in the automotive sector for many years. For this reason, the stability of cargo tricycles is being investigated at HHN in a research master's program with projects and student work, and vehicles are being tested on the ASE test track. (ada)

Students at Heilbronn University are developing the software for autonomous driving as part of the innovative Mini-Auto-Drive (MAD, https://asert.hs-heilbronn.de) laboratory experiment. MAD maps all software layers of autonomous driving including traffic management, environment detection, navigation, driving maneuver management, path planning and motion control for a 1:24 scale model. MAD enables the development and testing of the software layers in different, configurable scenarios. The system is designed for defensive driving and avoids collisions. (ftr)

The Audi A3 e-tron test vehicle for autonomous driving was put into operation. Master's students at Heilbronn University developed and applied two different motion controllers for the vehicle's trajectory control: a non-linear state controller with feedforward control and a linear model predictive controller with non-linear feedforward control. An industrial Linux PC in conjunction with Space Drive II from PARAVAN is used to control the vehicle. The driving software is developed model-based in MATLAB/Simulink and executed under ROS (Robot Operating System). (ftr)

Automated driving is on everyone's lips and it is well known that it is one of the most important factors influencing our mobility. Since the summer semester of 2018, the ASE Master's degree course has offered a very successful two-semester lecture series specifically tailored to this topic. If you not only want to have a say in automated driving, but also help develop it, it is best to attend all modules in the lecture series. The modules "Deep Learning" and "Perception and Situation Understanding" start in the summer semester, while "Architecture and Planning" and "Path Planning and Control" are covered in the winter semester. (nst)

Prof. Meroth and Mr. Sora wrote an almost 500-page textbook on sensor networks in 2018, which is now in its second edition with almost 700 pages. The focus is on the design and programming of sensor circuits with AVR microcontrollers. The book also contains lots of useful instructions on C programming, building embedded programs, networks and bus systems. Students can download it free of charge as an e-book from our library or within the university network (ame):

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-31709-6

+Autonomous driving on a scale of 1:76

+ 100 x 50cm tracks

+ Multiplayer robot car racing

+ Software stack for autonomous driving

+ Computer vision, motion planning, motion control, deep neural networks, reinforcement learning

 + Raspberry Pi programming, C++ coding, Python coding, MATLAB/Simulink simulation, ROS2

https://github.com/modbas/mad76

 (ftr).

A master's thesis, in which an ASB/ASR/ESP was developed for model vehicles, gave rise to the idea of building a chassis dynamometer on the same model scale, which can be used to simulate various load cases for the vehicle. This is now available for road tests. It is driven by two powerful DC motors and controlled by a Nucelo STM32 board. (ame/pke)

Every year, the Faculty of TE organizes a major international excursion. In recent years, these have gone to Hong Kong, China, India, Vietnam, Rwanda and Mexico in 2024. ASE students are very well represented there. In addition to company tours and visits to the German embassy and chamber of foreign trade, we also visit our partner universities and work with them on a project, first online and then on site, which changes every year. (ame)

1:5 vehicle platform for the 

- development of chassis systems, their application and testing 

- acquisition of measurement data in model-based driving tests

Interested participants are very welcome! (gtt)