The "Robotic Assistance Systems" group develops and researches robotic systems to support patients and informal and formal caregivers. One focus of the group is on the physical relief of caregivers by, for example, robots assisting with the repositioning of a patient. Furthermore, there is a focus on movement analyses as well as on the investigation of reactions in the movement process of a human to robotic systems.

• Activity detection and motion analysis with optical and inertial sensor systems
• AI-based environment detection and object recognition
• Analysis of changes in the motion sequence in response to robotic systems
• Derivation of cooperation strategies between humans and robots,
• Ergonomic considerations of work processes and stress analyses

• Fusion of point clouds to optimise body tracking
• Posture classification of caregivers based on camera and sensor suit data

The group "Nutrition and Functionality in Old Age" develops monitoring and assistance systems for older people. As part of the technical development process, the needs of the various target groups (fit older people living at home, rehabilitation patients, people in need of care with and without cognitive impairments) are first identified. In the course of this, the iterative assessment of usability and use takes place, followed by the evaluation of measurable effects for the respective target group. The group has a wide methodological spectrum and expertise in various fields (physiotherapy, computer science, medical technology, health sciences, nutritional sciences and medicine).

• Evaluation of qualitative data from interview and focus group discussions, e.g. on the attitude towards technology and the identification of concrete needs and approaches of technical assistance systems in the context of dementia care at home, etc.
• Basic quantitative analyses of correlations between nutritional and mobility parameters.
• Implementation of technical features, e.g. in tablet-based apps.
• Analysis of data collected with sensor belts, force plates and depth imaging cameras to identify deficits in physical functionality using clustering and/or AI.

• Analysis of technically and conventionally collected data in the field of mobility of senior citizens

The OFFIS group "Automation and Integration Technology" develops solutions for the integrated care of patients - from dynamic networking in the operating theatre to the networking of doctors, nurses and the inclusion of patients in their own healthcare. Standards and norms such as DICOM, HL7 and IHE play a central role here. In addition, the group develops assistance systems for the personal living environment that support elderly and chronically ill people in particular in maintaining or restoring their health and independence.

• Management of medical image data based on the DICOM standard
• Personal assistance systems in the areas of nutrition and heart health
• Use of data from the living environment (e.g. smart meters) for medical purposes

• Development of smart services for the field of nutritional counselling based on nutritional and vital data

The OFFIS group "Biomedical Devices and Systems" fundamentally researches technologies that are used on or in the human body to assess the state of health or therapy/rehab. Devices that are close to the body or implanted can make significant contributions to providing targeted and needs-based information, compensate for limitations caused by disability and chronic diseases, for example, and have a direct effect on the body and physiological processes as medical devices/medical technology. The group's research focuses on the modelling, fusion and processing of medical sensor data such as artificial hearts or pacemakers, security/data protection, as well as the "structure-preserving" transmission of health data, also in the context of telemedical applications on the basis of open standards (IHE, HL7, FHIR, etc.).

• Research into telemedical procedures for the interrogation and control of implanted or body-related systems
• telemedical support in emergency management and intensive care medicine
• research into predictive maintenance approaches for implanted systems
• Formal verification of safety-critical medical devices and compliance with the Medical Devices Act and the Medical Device Directive, respectively
• development of a multi-level fall detection software for emergency care

• Development of a multi-level fall detection software for emergency care

The OFFIS group "Data Management and Analysis" conducts data science in the healthcare sector and researches and develops solutions for the preparation and evaluation of usually large and heterogeneous databases in the healthcare sector with the aim of generating information and new knowledge from the data. The research and application focus is on suitable information visualisation, analysis-oriented data consolidation and preparation, testing of analysis procedures for their applicability in the health domain, primarily cancer epidemiology, and health reporting. To this end, interactive dashboards are being developed and, in particular, the spatial reference as well as data protection and data security (privacy by design) are being considered.

• Investigation of analysis approaches for small-scale data
• Applicability of machine learning and AI methods to cancer data.
• Test data generation through e.g. disaggregation or reverse application of standardisation methods
• Concepts and technologies for explorative, multidimensional data analyses, for planning and monitoring indicators and for data mining, with special consideration of the integration of spatial reference and statistics

The OFFIS group "Assistive Technologies for Care and Nursing" researches innovative technologies to support care. Ensuring long-term care is one of the greatest challenges of the future. An increasing number of people in need of care are faced with too few care professionals. The work of the ATP group is aimed both at relieving the burden on care professionals and at supporting the people receiving care. In addition to professional care, the increasingly important group of informal caregivers (e.g. relatives, neighbours and friends) is addressed in research projects.

• Robotic systems for nursing
• VR/AR to support nursing processes
• Telecare - care at a distance
• AI for nursing

The OFFIS research group "Smart Human-Robot Collaboration" explores interactive AI methods to enable robots to act intelligently in collaboration with humans in unstructured and new environments in industry and crafts. Interaction is the key to successful cooperation between humans and robots in order to learn from humans, increase the accessibility of robot systems and enable transfer to new situations.

• Human-robot collaboration for industrial applications
• Simulation-assisted learning for robotics
• Activity recognition, modelling and motion analysis for optimised exoskeletons
• Social robotics - acceptance of industrial collaborative robots
• AI-assisted robotics