Overview of the German industrial research project ADAPTRONIK

In 1997 BMBF, within the framework of an idea competition for future-oriented key technologies and their industrial utilization, called for project proposals from industries and research for so-called 'Leitprojekts'. An independent group of experts selected few project proposals form the many submitted, and prosed them to BMBF for promotion. One of these projects is the BMBF-Leitprojekt ADAPTRONIK which is introduced in this paper. The Leitprojekt ADAPTRONIK which is conducted under the responsibility of Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V. in Brunswick, focuses on the strucutre-conforming integration of piezoelectric fibers and patches in structures for lightweight construction. It is aimed at active vibration and noise reduction, contour deformation and micro-positioning in the very sense of adaptronics in various industrial applications. The project targets are prototype assemblies from the fields of automotive industry, rail vehicles, mechanical engineering, medical engineering, and aerospace.