COOPERANTS

The flagship project "Collaborative Processes and Services for Aeronautics and Space" (COOPERANTS) is a project funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The project was approved for funding as part of the GAIA-X funding competition for the development of innovative and practical applications and data rooms in the digital ecosystem GAIA-X and officially started on February 11, 2022. The COOPERANTS research project significantly supports the development of digitization processes in the aerospace industry, with the purpose of implementing more efficient types for future work methods and production processes over the entire life cycle of spacecrafts and aircrafts, in order to strengthen the competitiveness of the industry in Germany and Europe. In particular, this includes opportunities for digitally supported decentralized collaboration with local, national, and international partners as well as distributed teams. In the COOPERANTS project, the challenges of digitization are analyzed and solutions are developed based on the GAIA-X principles. In addition to considering property rights and the implementation of security concepts, the main focus of the research work is on the development and exploitation of Gaia-X-compatible smart services. Here, SMEs and startups in particular have the opportunity to use the potential of the GAIA-X cloud platform by offering their services directly via the protected European marketplace in order to work efficiently with clients, suppliers and other cooperation partners. The consortium of the COOPERANTS project consists of large industrial companies, SMEs, start-ups and other research institutions. The DFKI subproject "Interactive Cloud-Based Interaction Environment for space robotics applications" is specifically concerned with the implementation of a digital twin for kinematically complex robots such as the SherpaTT walking rover. The existing control center software for robot control is to be implemented and expanded as a GAIA-X smart service and tested in the form of a pilot mission. This is intended to create the basis for the interactive use of the GAIA-X platform by different user groups for the development and operation of robots, particularly in the context of space applications, but also in the field of Industry 4.0.