The other silver medal-winning inventions also include a new method and device for more precise optical measurements of technical surfaces with inclined flanks, free-form surfaces or highly tilted surfaces. The confocal microscope was developed by Johannes Belkner and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Manske at the Institute for Process Measurement and Sensor Technology. It is currently used for probing and measuring surfaces on nanopositioning and nanomeasuring machines. This improves the measurement of microscopic structures and enables the fabrication of nanostructures on complex substrates. The technique could also be used in the future to improve laser scanning confocal microscopes, which are widely used in industrial inspection.
Prof. Peter Husar also received a silver medal for the electrical current stimulation method he developed for use in electrotherapy of neurological problems. Whereas previous technology was largely based on the direct application of direct current (DC), the new method makes it possible to generate a signal form of the injected current that, on the one hand, avoids the formation of unwanted decomposition voltages at the contact points and, on the other hand, generates the desired DC current or voltage at the neurons in the brain.
Meteorological weather stations, storage rooms or climatic chambers with high requirements for exact temperature measurement can benefit in the future from an invention by Silke Augustin, Prof. Thomas Fröhlich, Helge Mammen and Juan Sebastian Marin-Toro: Together, they have developed a device and method for the automatic, traceable calibration of thermometers for ambient temperature measurement. The invention, which was awarded a bronze medal, enables automated calibration of a thermometer on site without having to remove the thermometer from its measuring point.
The second bronze medal went to automotive engineer Martin Schiele for developing a methodology for generating digital twins using neural networks through supervised learning to provide them as a learning environment for other reinforcement learning algorithms. The virtual representations of the objects allow control strategies to be trained on the computer fully automatically and thus quickly and efficiently, which are less expensive than time-consuming manual procedures for parameterizing the controllers and controlling the objects. In particular, complex industrial or household systems thus become cheaper and faster to operate.
The inventions of Thuringian universities and research institutions are presented every year at the iENA in Nuremberg by the patent management of the State Patent Center Thuringia PATON. PATON-PTH will now also advise and accompany the inventors on the way to exploiting the patents.
