The EcoCarrier HY3 will be making its first ever public appearance at HANNOVER MESSE 2008. This lightweight commercial vehicle is intended primarily for local authorities and companies with regional operations.

The EcoCarrier HY3 is powered by a fuel cell hybrid system, which helps save energy: it only needs about 50% of the energy required by conventional combustion engines. And there are other advantages of this three-axle commercial vehicle: compared with battery-powered vehicles, no time is wasted charging or changing batteries.

It only takes a minute to fill the fuel cell system tank with hydrogen, whereas it takes eight hours to charge up a traction battery. Thanks to the combination of fuel cell, nickel-metal hydride battery and high-power capacitors, the EcoCarrier offers a range of more than 250km and is 200kg lighter than an electric vehicle with a lead battery. This also significantly increases the load capacity of the EcoCarrier HY3.

PROTON MOTOR Fuel Cell GmbH www.proton-motor.de 

In Formula 1, it is not just the drivers that travel at top speeds. When Heidfeld, Räikkönen, Hamilton and co. are on the track, race data from their super-fast cars is also whizzing back and forth. Microsoft is bringing a Formula 1 racing car to HANNOVER MESSE 2008 to present the electronic control unit (ECU) that records and analyses all activities in the vehicle's power train.

The spectacular thing about that is the speed at which it happens: the data is processed in real time. Microsoft developed the ECU in cooperation with McLaren Electronic Systems (MES). All Formula 1 racing teams will use the system from this year through to the 2010 season to start with.

The technology is impressive: each Formula 1 car on the track uses a high-speed connection to send thousands of pieces of data (continuously collected by more than 100 sensors) to the pits. Although data volumes can soon reach up to 1GB per car per race, the race engineers in the pit immediately evaluate the bits and bytes in real time using Microsoft software.

Microsoft Deutschland GmbH www.microsoft.de

Innovative microfluid displays will be unveiled to the public at HANNOVER MESSE 2008. They are special in that they only consume electricity when the display content changes.

At the heart of this new kind of display is an adjustable electric field that modifies the surface tension of the droplets. Switching on the voltage to individual electrodes causes expansion previously contracted droplets of water on a substrate.

When an electrode next to a droplet is being energized, the droplet moves over, and it remains in its new position when the voltage is switched off again. Thus energy is only required in the moment during which the display content changes due to the movement of droplets between hidden reservoirs and the visible surface.

Bartels Mikrotechnik GmbH www.bartels-mikrotechnik.de 

Will this watch catapult you into outer space? Who knows?! Swiss watch manufacturer Fortis has been the official supplier of wristwatches for astronauts and cosmonauts since 1992. Whether they go on a mission to the Russian Mir space station or to the international space station (ISS), their Fortis wristwatches always fly with them!

At HANNOVER MESSE 2008, Fortis will take part in an experiment to synchronize a watch prototype live from the ISS via GTS (Global Transmission Services), an innovative radio signal technology. The watch will be set to the correct local time by radio signal from space.

In addition, the experiment aims to prove that data can be transferred from the ISS to Earth by sending an SMS from space. The radio signal will be encrypted and coded before being sent from the ISS to ensure that it can only be read by the authorized recipients.

FORTIS Uhren AG www.fortis-watch.com 

Embedded and real-time systems do not really give you much to look at and of course the computer scientists at the University of Ulm know this. That is why they decided to mount their new products on a robot submarine which will be submerged at HANNOVER MESSE 2008.

The scientists have equipped their diving machine with a control and navigation system, a sonar system and an image processing system. The robot submarine, with a camera mounted on the bow, operates underwater completely autonomously and is driven only by six propellers.

When traveling along the water's surface, however, the robot submarine can be wirelessly programmed with new missions. This little diver is especially impressive in that, rather like a bat, it can react immediately to is surroundings, which is thanks to its real-time controls.

Universität Ulm www.uni-ulm.de 

Researchers the world over are looking for the best materials and grading them, and in this respect European researchers are no different. The European Union's ExtreMat "Integrated Project" (IP) aims to discover materials that are able to withstand the most extreme conditions. And, similar to the Casting shows, the search is expected to result in a discovery which will become the subject of active development work. The ExtreMat project team, led by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), will present its research results at HANNOVER MESSE 2008.

The ExtreMat work will be particularly interesting because the project has just entered the important phase of industrialization. Hence researchers are keen to make the most of the excellent opportunity to establish relations at HANNOVER MESSE with interested industrial partners who need innovative materials in order to bring their product ideas to fruition.

The interim goal of the ExtreMat project during the current industrialization phase is to convert new material concepts and bonding technologies into components, while industrial implementation of the components is expected to be achieved by the end of the project. Assuming the right partners come together at HANNOVER MESSE 2008, it will be exciting to see what innovative products will be found in our homes in the future.

Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik www.ipp.mpg.de

For a tractor to appear at HANNOVER MESSE 2008, it must have something special to offer! And this is exactly the case with the agricultural machine that will be on the stand of the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). But we are not talking about simple agricultural equipment here. We are talking about part of a new energy crop farming method.

Researchers correlate important data, such as the geological composition of the soil, rainfall and sun hours, in order to generate a yield forecast. This, together with other specialized information, creates a knowledge base that enables the system to automatically answer specific questions.

For the purpose of checking the yield forecasts, GPS-supported sensor data from the harvesters, like the tractor at HANNOVER MESSE, is incorporated in this information cycle. In presenting the new farming method, the researchers hope to demonstrate that good-quality, digitized geo-data and modern sensor-based data collection provide a promising basis for a variety of forecasting and guidance services in agricultural production. These services, provided in the form of individual and timely online advice, can contribute to improving the profitability and environment-friendliness of food and energy production.

Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI - German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence) www.dfki.de 

The sun is the most popular source of energy and large photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into power are an increasingly common sight on the rooftops of German homes. In Japan too, conventional energy sources have been successfully replaced by solar power for years and Japan is now the world leader in solar cell production.

On 24 April in Hall 27 at HANNOVER MESSE 2008, experts from both of these major powers in the field of solar energy will meet for the first Photovoltaic Symposium. Discussions will focus on bilateral cooperation in the future, including opening up new markets, initiatives, opportunities and perspectives in research and development in the photovoltaic sector.

High-profile speakers from research and business will gather here to share information. The company Sharp, one of the biggest Japanese exhibitors in Hannover, will also participate in the discussion. The event was organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).

JETRO www.jetro.de  

The Magic Floater, the highlight on the Peros Electronics' stand at PROMOTION WORLD 2008, will immediately catch the eye of every visitor. The Magic Floater allows a product to float above its base or in a metal surround as if by magic.

Of course the floating effect is not really achieved by magic, but by CCL (Computer Controlled Levitation) technology. A system of electromagnets, magnetic field sensors, permanent magnets and microprocessor controls keep the object floating with the help of around 16,000 control pulses per second.

The magnetic field sensor detects the position of the floating object by constantly measuring the magnetic field and transmits this information to the electronic control system, which keeps the object in the correct position. With this technology, the Magic Floater can turn virtually any product, whether it be a mobile phone, perfume bottle or even a can of cola, into a floating eye-catcher.

Peros electronics GmbH www.peros-gmbh.de

- Andrea Staude-