Great Machines, Think Alike
Fraunhofer IPK
EMOTION is a Fraunhofer Flagship project. It is a collaborative effort between six Fraunhofer Institutes to develop a new way of human and machine as well as machine and machine collaboration.
The Fraunhofer lead project aims to demonstrate for the first time how “empathic production systems” enable more efficient cooperation between actors in production and the transformation towards resilient value creation communities.
My role was to translate the project into a tangible visual representation that can resonate with technical and non-technical external stakeholders.
Industry
Production Technology
My Role
Concept development, Layout, Illustration
Team
Marketing, Corporate publishing, design and research
Timeline
Q4 2024
Tools
Context & Challenge
Collaboration between machines and people in industries.
"Empathetic production systems are intended to enable more efficient and resilient cooperation between the various players in production – this applies to the cooperation between increasingly intelligent machines themselves, but above all to the integration of humans into complex production systems." - from the article.
The challenge was to translate an abstract research concept in a visual material that could resonate with key stakeholders - technical and non-technical.
Project Illustration represented as a football field with multiple players in the form of collaborative workflow.
Layout and Illustration for Organizational managers.
Approach
Translating conceptual research into illustrative workflows.
After having discussions with the Editorial team, head of digital communication and the head researcher of the project — we formulated concepts to best represent the project.
We decided to showcase the production flow of one of other ongoing projects. Using photographs taken by our team, I designed and illustrated the concepts.
Illustration Elements in the workflow.
Illustrations
Solution
From AI tools for ideation to graphic illustrations.
After a few concepts generated using Fraunhofer's AI model. Initial ideas showcased open industrial setups, office plans in an isometric view where humans and machines were collaborating.
However, these representations were too cluttered and the streamlined work was challenging to visualize. At this point, there was clarity on the illustration style and color theme.
AI Generated Images for Initial Ideation
Teams in a sport coordinate and collaborate to achieve a singular goal.
That's when the idea of moving beyond the traditional industry and exploring collaborative efforts from other activities in life.
Sports seemed like a relevant metaphor, as teams work together to achieve a singular goal. That's how the idea of a football field was established, it served as a visual representation in a 2D manner.
The lines passing through from one player to another to achieve a singular production goal.
Rough draft outlining the process
From Photographs to Graphic Illustrations
I translated the concept into an illustrated format using photographs taken of each step of the process in the labs. Ensuring accurate representation of technical concept and machines, with feedback from the Research Scientist.
Process of narrative development and illustration in progress.
Takeaways
Multiple stakeholder collaboration, and forging successful industry partnerships.
The project was a success and would be showcased at PTK Berlin, bringing on new prospective project partners and industry collaborations for Fraunhofer.
The cross-function collaboration with Editorial team, Scientist and design team resulted in a new understanding of design workflow to realize this concept.
Monitor Image for the Project
