How can testing and production processes in the automotive and supplier industry be made more efficient, cost-effective and resource-friendly? The DigiPrüF innovation project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Viability and Climate Protection (BMWK), was dedicated to this question.

As part of the project, five industrial partners, three research institutions and two associated large corporations developed a comprehensive digital testing platform. The aim was to test products virtually with the help of digital twins, optimise real testing processes and enable new digital business models - especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the automotive and supplier industry.

 

Digital twins as a key technology

 

A central component of the project was the development of powerful digital twins in collaboration with the Institute of Numerical Mathematics at Ulm University.

Tailored to the engineering context provided to the Institute of Numerical Mathematics by the project partners, the five-member team developed Mathematics models that allow processes to be reproduced from reality, optimised and predictions to be made about future behaviour. Physical models and data-based approaches were combined in the process. The integration of data allows the generic models to be customised to the real processes and therefore enables a realistic representation. Thanks to the use of special Mathematics methods, which enable a very efficient and resource-saving calculation by reducing the problem dimension, the models can be evaluated in real time and processes can therefore be optimised immediately while they are still running. In particular, predictive health and predictive quality systems for industrial applications can be constructed using the digital twins developed.

 

Example applications

 

Examples of applications include

• A tractor unit for materials testing

• A PEM electrolyser

• A learning factory from fischertechnik

• The complete test bench at Aalen University

These demonstrators formed the basis for the virtual testing environment and illustrated the potential of the developed platform.

At the final meeting on 2 December 2025, the project partners presented their results and live demonstrators. The Institute for Drive Technology Aalen (IAA) also provided insights into the further development of the vehicle test bench during the project period.