The research and development activities of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart primarily address organizational and technological questions concerning the manufacturing industry.

R&D projects seek to identify and exploit all existing potential for automation and rationalization within the production process, so as to improve competitiveness, lower costs, render processes and products more environmentally compatible, and at the same time maintain or create jobs, and improve the quality of the workplace. To achieve these objectives, methods, components and equipment systems are developed, through to complete machine and plant installations, and subjected to extensive operational tests.

For the most part, projects are carried out under contract to industrial companies; others are implemented within the framework of government-funded research programs. The long-term aspects of research, of which the results also ultimately benefit industry, are evaluated within programs supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Research Association and the European Union.

Main research fields: