Researchers develop the office of tomorrow - TU Kaiserslautern and DFKI open "Living Lab smart office space"

What does the office of the future look like? Researchers in the new project Living Lab smart office space are dealing with this question. You will develop new technology concepts for the office of tomorrow in a realistic environment. The team around Professorin Dr.-Ing. Sabine Hoffmann from TU Kaiserslautern and Professor Dr. Andreas Dengel from Deutschen Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI) work closely together in the new laboratory. Here they can test their ideas directly in practice. As part of a ceremony, the laboratory was inaugurated today in the presence of the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Science, Professor Dr. Konrad Wolf opens.

Too hot, too cold, too loud, too dry, too little privacy - these are just a few points from a user survey on office space by the International Facility Management Organization from 2009. They clearly show that comfort in offices is increasing in many cases leaves something to be desired. In particular, there are common complaints about the thermal conditions that lead to job dissatisfaction. Poor lighting conditions and a high noise level are also not conducive to concentration.

How comfort in the office can be improved for each individual Professorin Sabine Hoffmann and her team in the new Living Lab smart office space work with research colleagues from DFKI. "In the office of the future there will be personalized workplaces that are tailored to the needs of the individual and take individual differences better into account," says Hoffmann, who Lehrstuhl für Gebäudesysteme und Gebäudetechnik at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. "Automation technology used in a targeted manner can, for example, regulate the temperature, lighting and ventilation at each workplace. People should retain control of their environment".

In addition to comfort, Hoffmann will also focus on energy efficiency. "Office buildings in particular have a very high energy consumption," Hoffmann continues. "With new intelligent technologies, a large part of heat, electricity and water can be saved".

The colleagues at the DFKI around Professor Dr. Andreas Dengel, head of the knowledge management research department, will work here on new hardware and software designed to simplify everyday office life. He adds: "With intelligent assistance systems, the office of tomorrow can also be designed to be comfortable when using knowledge, thus promoting creativity and productivity. Furthermore, the use of modern information technologies, such as sensory activity recognition, offers enormous potential for flexible working environments".

The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Science, Professor Dr. Konrad Wolf present. "In the Living Lab smart office space, innovation is literally visible due to the special proximity of basic research and application-oriented research. I am sure that the environment and the innovative approaches of this joint project can lead to further spin-offs and that it will contribute to strengthening Kaiserslautern as a research location". .

professor dr Arndt Poetzsch-Heffter, Vice President of the TU Kaiserslautern, is pleased about the new cooperation: "The TU Kaiserslautern and the DFKI can look back on many years of successful cooperation, which has made a significant contribution to making our location nationally and internationally visible. Many technical innovations and the founding of companies have emerged from this. With the new Living Lab smart office space, we are now opening a new chapter. Here, too, researchers will think up and develop the technology of tomorrow".

professor dr Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of the DFKI: "Our DFKI Living Labs show hands-on innovation in concrete practical application situations. We are already operating two of our six previous Living Labs on the subject of "Smart Factory" and "Smart City" at the Kaiserslautern site with great success for customer training - but also for public dialogue. With the third Living Lab, which started today, Kaiserslautern is further distinguishing itself as a "hotspot of innovation".