The working group is always interested in translating potentially promising research approaches into new products. In cooperation with the foundation and innovation center of the university, the following spin-offs have already been set up.

oldntec GmbH is an engineering office with its own distribution channel in the healthcare sector. Evolved oldntec from research activities of the departments AMT and AIT (OFFIS) under the direction of Prof. Andreas Hein. In 2014, the two managing directors Dr.-Ing. Thomas Frenken and Dipl.-Inform. Ralf Eckert founded the company after more than 10 years in research at university and institute. Since then, they and their four employees have been developing and researching assistance products for customer care. The first developments focused on the professional care market. The first in-house product, ambiact, was launched on the market in 2015 and has since been distributed throughout Germany and in neighboring countries. Ambiact is an intelligent current sensor for the home emergency call market and has received several awards including innovation and start-up prices through Science4Life and the initiative "Land of Ideas". Another well-known product for the professional care market is u.a. The "Veranstaltungsapp", developed for the coordination of helpers at major events of the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. Since 2017, the focus of the work has increasingly shifted to the informal care market. After the first research work was carried out in 2017, the company will introduce its first own products for this market in 2018. These include various functional enhancements for digital language assistants to support carers and an information portal around the subject of "informal care".

Funding

• Exist-Gründerstipendium (11/13 – 10/14)
• Own sources (AMT)

Robotics is one of the key technologies of the 21st century. The gap between expectations and actual capabilities is still great, however. Significant research efforts are needed to make robots suitable for everyday use and to operate safely and effectively in the human environment. Therefore, academic and industrial robotics research has intensified noticeably in recent years. Because robots can not be newly developed for every problem, there is great demand for universally applicable and easily expandable robot systems.

The start-up a1robtics, which emerged from the AMT department among other things, develops robot systems that are precisely tailored to the areas of research, development and teaching. The first product of the start-up is the mobile robotic base a1orb. As a universal platform, special emphasis was placed on flexibility, openness and extensibility at all system levels. The extension of the system, for example, with additional sensors or gripping devices is easily possible due to its mechanical nature. The software used is the robot operating system ROS, which has become a de facto standard in academic robotics. Users can thus access all the high-level functionalities of ROS, such as navigation and mapping algorithms. Due to the high load capacity of 50 kg, the system is also suitable for superstructures of higher weight. A special feature of the robot is its omnidirectional drive. As a result, he can move from a standing position in any spatial direction and perform rotations. It therefore offers a highly flexible drive concept that is well suited for complex structured rooms.

Due to the continuing close connection with the research and teaching of the department AMT, the concepts are further developed in mutual cooperation. The foundation was based on a successful EXIST start-up scholarship, in which Prof. Martin Greschner and Prof. Andreas Hein acted as mentors.

www.a1robotics.de

Funding

• Exist-Gründerstipendium (10/15 – 09/16)
• Own sources (AMT)