With the blue ring of light around the two cameras, the CityBot actually looks quite friendly. And that is no coincidence. After all, the "eyes" on the avatar head of the autonomous vehicle are not only technically necessary. "Such an appearance also promotes acceptance among the population," Max explains. Humanoids like the French-Japanese information robot "Pepper" with its big googly eyes have already shown this.
Max is a software engineer at the EDAG Group and is involved in the "Campus Free City" project, in which the CityBot, a self-driving all-purpose vehicle for transport, street cleaning, green space maintenance and much more, is to be used in public spaces for the first time. Laser distance, lidar, optical sensors and artificial intelligence help it to find its way around and recognize objects.
"This is one of the most innovative topics out there right now," Max says of the technology behind the CityBot. For in this project he can explore and help shape the autonomous infrastructure of the future. And the best part? He doesn't have to go to Silicon Valley to do it. No, it can also be done on his doorstep, at home in Hesse.
Max has been with the EDAG Group since 2012. He started with a dual study programme in electrical engineering and information technology. He then spent a year at the customer Ford in Cologne before returning to Fulda in 2018. Where, he also wrote his master's thesis in "Embedded Systems" at the EDAG Group.
For his thesis, Max wrote an Android app for camera-based object recognition. Normally, objects always have to be annotated in the image material afterwards. What is special about his app is that the programme annotates the object while it is still being recorded, i.e. in real time. The video is broken down into individual frames, and a tracker "tracks" the object during the recording. Of course, there are still a few more challenges. For example, the lighting conditions play an important role and the real-time tracker requires so much computing power that a standard smartphone is simply not up to the task. But that's just the way it is with research.
"We have all the freedom in our projects. It's like a big playground," Max tells us. But the innovative team is only one aspect he appreciates about his work. The other is the variety: "Since coming back to EDAG Group in Fulda in 2018, I have used nine different programming languages in projects," reports the 29-year-old. C, C++, C#, Python, Java, Kotlin, Javascript, VBA, and also Dart, the language used to program "Flutter". This is the framework he also used for the app in his master's thesis. Just one example of how theory and practice are intertwined at the EDAG Group. "Our projects keep us up to date with innovative topics."
He also has the cutting edge with the "Free City Campus" project and the CityBot. This is because the autonomous infrastructure, which will be tested in real-life laboratory operation on the grounds of the Frankfurt stadium with a fleet of robot vehicles from 2023, covers several topics at once: in addition to object recognition, also human-machine interaction, logistics, cybersecurity and functional safety. The project is being implemented in cooperation with the Hochschule Fulda and the Technische Universität Darmstadt, among others, and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport and the state of Hesse.
"Our core topic is to optimize the flow of traffic. This works by networking all the bots and controlling them via a central control software," explains the software engineer. The big goal behind this is fewer emissions and less traffic in general. In other words: to make life in the smart city more liveable.
When Max is not researching the urban traffic of tomorrow, he recently spends a lot of time bouldering and climbing. A side effect of the Corona pandemic. For a long time, he was no longer able to pursue his real passion for sport: handball.
Now that is finally possible again. He is currently playing with his team, HSG Großenlüder/Hainzell, for promotion to the next higher league (Bezirksoberliga). "Handball is a good balance to my work," says Max. And also an enrichment for his job at the EDAG Group. Because in addition to being a team player and cooperating, it's also always about standing up for one's own cause - both professionally and athletically.
"Handball is not an ego sport where you only look at your own skills, I can also transfer that directly to my work at the EDAG Group".
