Project description

The oSHOP project of HTW Dresden, TU Dresden and Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) Chemnitz focuses on the concept of Open Source Hardware (OSH), freely accessible blueprints for physical components, devices and machines. The aim is to transfer potentials of Open Source Software (OSS) to technology development, to shorten innovation cycles through new experimental approaches in research and development (R&D) and thus meet the challenges of structural change in the mechanical engineering industry, which is significant for Saxony. With oSHOP, based on the OSH approach, cross-society development concepts for technical innovations, are made possible. For this purpose, the applying research institutions provide the technical results of their publicly funded R&D work free of charge as digital blueprints to regional SMEs, startups and research institutions. This means that the research results can further be used and developed by a large number of players. As a supplementary important component, the applying research institutions make their laboratories, test areas and workshops available for OSH-based research transfer. The aim is to provide a low-threshold opportunity to test advanced OSH for companies and researchers without their own test fields and without extensive investment funds. In the steering area of the project proposal, the participating research institutions evaluate and develop the necessary conditions for the use of OSH in innovation processes and derive concepts for OSH-based transfer projects. The practical implementation of the concept will be investigated in the form of workshop projects using the example of a robot platform, a structure-modular machine system and a framework for the generic generation of human machine interfaces.