BMBF Research Hub: 6G-Life

6G-life is a BMBF-funded research hub, which will drive cutting-edge research for 6G communication networks with a focus on human-machine collaboration. 6G-life provides new approaches for sustainability, security, resilience and latency and will sustainably strengthen the economy and thus digital sovereignty in Germany.

Motivation

TU Dresden and the Technical University of Munich have joined forces to form the 6G-life research hub to drive cutting-edge research for future 6G communication networks with a focus on human-machine collaboration. The merger of the two universities of excellence combines their world-leading preliminary work in the field of Tactile Internet in the Cluster of Excellence CeTI, 5G communication networks, quantum communication, Post-Shannon theory, artificial intelligence methods, and adaptive and flexible hardware and software platforms.

6G-life will significantly stimulate industry and the startup landscape in Germany through positive showcase projects and thus sustainably strengthen digital sovereignty in Germany. Test fields for two use cases will drive research and economic stimulation. The goal is to create at least 10 new startups through 6G-life in the first four years and to involve at least 30 startups. 6G-life will significantly contribute to the creation of a skilled workforce. In addition, 6G-life has set itself the task of accompanying the population in the digital transformation and thus making a contribution to society.

Research focus at ITR

Robotic assistance is growing interests for rehabilitation as well as for supporting movements of people with restricted mobility. In such scenarios, control adaptation to each and every user will make a significant contribution to the efficacy of the training and acceptance by the user. These controls require demanding real-time guarantees due to the direct physical human-machine interaction, and the access to personalized models of the user (human digital twin). Currently, the use of such systems is only possible to a limited extent in the laboratory environment due to the limitations in sensor communications and data processing capacities. Thus, the integration of 6G in-network computing promises a significant extension of the autonomy and mobility of personalised robotic assistance systems. The aim of R&D at ITR is to develop novel concepts and methods for controls for safety-critical systems through network computing.

ITR team members

• Sandra Hirche (principal investigator)
• Stefan Sosnowski
• Satoshi Endo
• Siyi Wang
• Xiaobing Dai
• Severin Beger

Project information

• Participating Universities
  • Technische Universität Dresden
  • Technical University of Munich
• Start date: 15th August, 2021
• Funding: 70 Million € for 4 years
• Number of principal investigators: 60
• Coordinators:
  • Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Frank Fitzek (TU Dresden)
  • Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. rer. nat. Holger Boche (TUM)
• Project website: https://6g-life.de/

Funding program

The BMBF’s funding measure “6G Research Hubs; Platform for Future Communication Technologies and 6G” is part of the implementation of the Federal Government’s Future and Economic Stimulus Package and is funded with around 200 million euros from the Future Package. With its research on 6G, Germany is setting itself the goal of assuming a leading role among the world’s top technology providers and helping to shape technological change at an early stage. This also contributes to the implementation of the German government’s High-Tech Strategy 2025.

The authors acknowledge the financial support by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany in the programme of “Souverän. Digital. Vernetzt.”. Joint project 6G-life, project identification number: 16KISK001K.