This section lists current and past research areas which I have pursued and supervised. More complete and recent information about my research interests including funded projects and research partners can be found at the homepage of my department at the Ilmenau University of Technology.

• Distributed Simulation based on the High Level Architecture (HLA)

HLA is a simulation interoperability standard originally developed by the US Department of Defense. Our research has focussed on evaluating and improving its applicability for coupling heterogeneous simulation systems, also outside of military application domains. This pioneer work started in 1998 shortly after the initial proposal of HLA and has sparked several international research efforts.

The main results of this work have been summarized in my PhD thesis. One major contribution of this thesis is a methodology of how HLA interfaces for simulation systems can be developed. On the implementation side the major result of the thesis is a fully featured HLA interface for the simulation system SLX.

Further work on HLA was conducted during my occupation at DaimlerChrysler and focussed on the possibilities for using HLA as a simulation backbone and integration standard for the digital factory.

More work on HLA was performed on standardizing HLA use patterns within a product development group within the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) that I was co-chairing. Applications of the solutions developed in this group have been verified in pilot projects with a major manufacturer of vehicles.

Finally, I have been the co-initiator of the HLA competence center in Magdeburg which has organized the annual HLA-Forum (a workshop for the German HLA community) for 11 years.


• Application of innovative simulation concepts

My team has been involved in a number of simulation studies conducted for various purposes. In these projects we try to transfer our theoretical concepts into industrial practice. Highlights of these projects include:



• The simulation of the streetcar system in the city of Magdeburg (using real-time data and online-simulation ideas and HLA-based model integration)
• The simulation of the Riga Harbour (applying process oriented modeling techniques and web-based simulation)
• A simulation study for the Daimler AG in Gaggenau (in support of a PhD thesis on simulation based early warning systems)
• The implementation of a 3D visual modelling interface for creating factory layouts of foundries (including the automatic simulation model generation and virtual reality based visualization of results)

Further simulation studies have been conducted in the area of factory and manufacturing simulation. Typical simulation and animation systems which have been applied in these studies are discrete-event simulation tools like SLX, Quest, Arena, Plant Simulation, and Proof Animation.

We are now a partner university of the German VDA working group on material flow simulation and conduct workshops for students about the VDA component libraries ("VDA-Bausteinkasten") for Plant Simulation.

• Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality has become my second research focus during my time as department head at Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg. Activities included the supervision of the VR system development at the Fraunhofer IFF in Magdeburg (from June 2005 to March 2007) and the investigation of industrial applications for VR. The software now operating the impressive Elbedom (a 360 degree laser projection system in Magdeburg's VDTC), has been initially developed by my team at the Fraunhofer IFF. We were also responsible for defining and commissioning the hardware components of this system (in cooperation with the lead contractor LDT Laser Display Technology GmbH).

I am furthermore interested in questions relating to the integration of VR with other technologies, e.g., production simulation and the integration of VR solutions into the digital factory concept.

At the Ilmenau University of Technology, my department was a long time member of the competence center virtual reality.

• Conference Participations

I am actively participating in various simulation conferences. I am personally ranking the Winter Simulation Conference as the most important international conference for the subject of discrete event simulation. In the area of parallel and distributed simulation, the PADS workshops have proven to be of highest scientific quality. In 2011, I had the honour of being program chair for PADS 2011 in Nice.

I also find the Simulation Interoperability Workshops conducted by SISO to be very valuable although I don't get to visit them too often any more.

On a national level I support the ASIM conferences including the ASIM Dedicated Conference on Simulation in Production and Logistics.