Stefan Sommer

An Automated Electric Vehicle Prototype Showing New Trends in Automotive Architectures

2015 IEEE 18th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2015

The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) b... more The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) based functions. To show the possibilities of modern IT systems, a demonstrator car was developed in RACE (Robust and Reliant Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars) based on a completely redesigned E/E architecture, which supports the integration of mixed-criticality components and offers features like Plug&Play. This paper presents the architecture and components of this vehicle prototype, which is equipped with modern systems such as Steer-by-Wire without mechanical fallback. It was designed to support future driver assistance systems, e.g. to carry out autonomous parking maneuvers onto an inductive charging station, a task, which is hard to achieve accurately enough for a human driver. Therefore, a special emphasis lies on the description of the sensor set for automated operation.

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An Automated Electric Vehicle Prototype Showing New Trends in Automotive Architectures

2015 IEEE 18th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2015

The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) b... more The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) based functions. To show the possibilities of modern IT systems, a demonstrator car was developed in RACE (Robust and Reliant Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars) based on a completely redesigned E/E architecture, which supports the integration of mixed-criticality components and offers features like Plug&Play. This paper presents the architecture and components of this vehicle prototype, which is equipped with modern systems such as Steer-by-Wire without mechanical fallback. It was designed to support future driver assistance systems, e.g. to carry out autonomous parking maneuvers onto an inductive charging station, a task, which is hard to achieve accurately enough for a human driver. Therefore, a special emphasis lies on the description of the sensor set for automated operation.

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Workshops der Wissenschaftlichen Konferenz Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen 2009 (WowKiVS 2009)

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

Klima- und Energiepolitik in Deutschland – Dissens und Konsens

List Forum für Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, 2015

Öff entlichkeit und Politik müssen häufi g den Eindruck gewinnen, dass Wirtschaftswissenschaftler... more Öff entlichkeit und Politik müssen häufi g den Eindruck gewinnen, dass Wirtschaftswissenschaftler bei zentralen wirtschaftspolitischen Fragen keine Einigkeit erzielen können. Dies gilt nicht zuletzt für die Umsetzung der Energiewende. Dieser Beitrag nutzt die öff entlich zugänglichen Stellungnahmen einschlägiger Forschungsinstitute, um durch die Identifi kation von Bereichen des Konsens und Dissens unter Energieökonomen einen Kontrapunkt zu setzen. Wider Erwarten wird off enbar, dass auf wesentlichen Handlungsfeldern weitgehende Einigkeit besteht und somit klare Handlungsempfehlungen ausgesprochen werden können.

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Klima- und Energiepolitik in Deutschland – Dissens und Konsens

List Forum für Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik, 2015

Öff entlichkeit und Politik müssen häufi g den Eindruck gewinnen, dass Wirtschaftswissenschaftler... more Öff entlichkeit und Politik müssen häufi g den Eindruck gewinnen, dass Wirtschaftswissenschaftler bei zentralen wirtschaftspolitischen Fragen keine Einigkeit erzielen können. Dies gilt nicht zuletzt für die Umsetzung der Energiewende. Dieser Beitrag nutzt die öff entlich zugänglichen Stellungnahmen einschlägiger Forschungsinstitute, um durch die Identifi kation von Bereichen des Konsens und Dissens unter Energieökonomen einen Kontrapunkt zu setzen. Wider Erwarten wird off enbar, dass auf wesentlichen Handlungsfeldern weitgehende Einigkeit besteht und somit klare Handlungsempfehlungen ausgesprochen werden können.

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Stromverbrauch privater Haushalte in Deutschland – Eine ökonometrische Analyse

Zeitschrift für Energiewirtschaft, 2015

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Stromverbrauch privater Haushalte in Deutschland – Eine ökonometrische Analyse

Zeitschrift für Energiewirtschaft, 2015

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The burden of Germany’s energy transition: An empirical analysis of distributional effects

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2015

Germany's energy transition has been accompanied by a near doubling of power prices for private h... more Germany's energy transition has been accompanied by a near doubling of power prices for private households since the outset of the new millennium. Millions of poor households and those that are close to the poverty threshold are likely to suff er from these increases in electricity cost. Focusing on low-income households, this paper illustrates the distributional implications of Germany's energy transition by investigating their electricity cost burden between 2006 and 2012, using data from the German Residential Energy Consumption Survey (GRECS). Our estimates suggest that in 2012, on average, households at poverty risk allocated 5.5% of their income to power and, hence, paid nearly as much for covering their electricity consumption as for heating purposes. Given Germany's ambitious targets to expand the share of costly renewable technologies in electricity consumption, which has broad support among the electorate, it is to be expected that households' expenditure for power will increase in the upcoming years. This raises the urgent question of how to mitigate the regressive impact of further increasing electricity prices on poor households. Direct cash transfers are suggested here as a non-distortionary instrument for easing the burden of high prices, one that is directly targeted at those endangered by energy poverty.

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The burden of Germany’s energy transition: An empirical analysis of distributional effects

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2015

Germany's energy transition has been accompanied by a near doubling of power prices for private h... more Germany's energy transition has been accompanied by a near doubling of power prices for private households since the outset of the new millennium. Millions of poor households and those that are close to the poverty threshold are likely to suff er from these increases in electricity cost. Focusing on low-income households, this paper illustrates the distributional implications of Germany's energy transition by investigating their electricity cost burden between 2006 and 2012, using data from the German Residential Energy Consumption Survey (GRECS). Our estimates suggest that in 2012, on average, households at poverty risk allocated 5.5% of their income to power and, hence, paid nearly as much for covering their electricity consumption as for heating purposes. Given Germany's ambitious targets to expand the share of costly renewable technologies in electricity consumption, which has broad support among the electorate, it is to be expected that households' expenditure for power will increase in the upcoming years. This raises the urgent question of how to mitigate the regressive impact of further increasing electricity prices on poor households. Direct cash transfers are suggested here as a non-distortionary instrument for easing the burden of high prices, one that is directly targeted at those endangered by energy poverty.

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Reconfigurable industrial process monitoring using the CHROMOSOME middleware

ACM SIGBED Review, 2013

In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes wit... more In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes with increasing complexity and reliability to satisfy their customer's needs with respect to product quality and continuity. Fulfilling these requirements means to employ continuous process monitoring and documentation without increasing production cost significantly even in case of subsequent reorganization of the production facility. The Multifunk research project focuses on the development and integration of features into the CHROMOSOME middleware to provide the basis for an intelligent, self-adapting process monitoring framework for production quality assurance. The key features of the framework are self-organization and selfconfiguration based on meta information in combination with industry standard protocols to guarantee an easy integration into industrial processes. The CHROMOSOME middleware is used on top of smart sensor platform MST2012 that has been developed in the course of the research project to tie established analog sensors to the digital process monitoring world. The contribution of this paper is a flexible, self-adaptive embedded middleware in combination with a smart sensor gateway for industrial process monitoring.

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Reconfigurable industrial process monitoring using the CHROMOSOME middleware

ACM SIGBED Review, 2013

In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes wit... more In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes with increasing complexity and reliability to satisfy their customer's needs with respect to product quality and continuity. Fulfilling these requirements means to employ continuous process monitoring and documentation without increasing production cost significantly even in case of subsequent reorganization of the production facility. The Multifunk research project focuses on the development and integration of features into the CHROMOSOME middleware to provide the basis for an intelligent, self-adapting process monitoring framework for production quality assurance. The key features of the framework are self-organization and selfconfiguration based on meta information in combination with industry standard protocols to guarantee an easy integration into industrial processes. The CHROMOSOME middleware is used on top of smart sensor platform MST2012 that has been developed in the course of the research project to tie established analog sensors to the digital process monitoring world. The contribution of this paper is a flexible, self-adaptive embedded middleware in combination with a smart sensor gateway for industrial process monitoring.

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MultiNet: An intelligent sensor cable

IEEE Local Computer Network Conference, 2010

In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes wit... more In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes with increasing complexity to satisfy their customer's needs in respect of product quality and continuity. To fulfil these requirements, a continuous process monitoring and documentation is required to assure the process quality but without increasing production cost significantly. In our project we develop an intelligent sensor cable which can be easily integrated into industrial processes using industrial communication standards like ProfiBus. To support an easy installation process of our sensor cable, it needs to be self contained; in our case the sensors and the processing unit, required for pre-processing and sensor management, are integrated in the cable. To increase usability, the cable can also be tailored by the customer to the required length. The key application of our sensor cable is the documentation of the concrete curing processes using the integrated temperature sensors for safety critical constructions.

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MultiNet: An intelligent sensor cable

IEEE Local Computer Network Conference, 2010

In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes wit... more In all areas of industrial production and construction, companies have to implement processes with increasing complexity to satisfy their customer's needs in respect of product quality and continuity. To fulfil these requirements, a continuous process monitoring and documentation is required to assure the process quality but without increasing production cost significantly. In our project we develop an intelligent sensor cable which can be easily integrated into industrial processes using industrial communication standards like ProfiBus. To support an easy installation process of our sensor cable, it needs to be self contained; in our case the sensors and the processing unit, required for pre-processing and sensor management, are integrated in the cable. To increase usability, the cable can also be tailored by the customer to the required length. The key application of our sensor cable is the documentation of the concrete curing processes using the integrated temperature sensors for safety critical constructions.

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Klimawandel: Wahrnehmung und Einschätzungen der deutschen Haushalte im Herbst 2012

Zeitschrift für Energiewirtschaft, 2013

ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag präsentiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse der bislang umfangreichsten Befr... more ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag präsentiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse der bislang umfangreichsten Befragung privater Haushalte in Deutschland zur Relevanz des Klimawandels und seiner möglichen Auswirkungen. Besonderer Wert wird bei der Diskussion der Ergebnisse auf das Auftreten möglicher Selektionseffekte und deren Korrektur durch Regewichten gelegt, da bei der Beantwortung von vielen Fragen eine doppelte Selbstselektion zu konstatieren ist. So sind zum einen Teilnehmer mit hohen Bildungsabschlüssen in der Stichprobe deutlich überrepräsentiert, zum anderen sind höher Gebildete eifriger in der Beantwortung mancher Fragen. Als Folge dieser doppelten Selektion von Antwortenden, die unter anderem das Resultat einer besonderen Affinität zu den Befragungsthemen sein kann, können die Befragungsergebnisse ein verzerrtes Bild der tatsächlichen Einschätzung der Bevölkerung zeichnen. Darüber hinaus ist es nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass beim Thema Klimawandel vielfach nach Gesichtspunkten des sozial Wünschenswerten, anstatt wahrheitsgemäß, geantwortet wird.AbstractThis article presents results that are obtained from a survey among private households in Germany, which took place in the fall of 2012. A key result is that in comparison with a range of other global challenges, respondents are less concerned with fighting climate change, a remarkable outcome given that the share of climate change skeptics in the survey is likely to be lower than in the population owing to selfselection problems. This article addresses such self-selection problems, as well as other shortcomings of surveys, and provides for a discussion on how to cope with them.

Klimawandel: Wahrnehmung und Einschätzungen der deutschen Haushalte im Herbst 2012

Zeitschrift für Energiewirtschaft, 2013

ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag präsentiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse der bislang umfangreichsten Befr... more ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag präsentiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse der bislang umfangreichsten Befragung privater Haushalte in Deutschland zur Relevanz des Klimawandels und seiner möglichen Auswirkungen. Besonderer Wert wird bei der Diskussion der Ergebnisse auf das Auftreten möglicher Selektionseffekte und deren Korrektur durch Regewichten gelegt, da bei der Beantwortung von vielen Fragen eine doppelte Selbstselektion zu konstatieren ist. So sind zum einen Teilnehmer mit hohen Bildungsabschlüssen in der Stichprobe deutlich überrepräsentiert, zum anderen sind höher Gebildete eifriger in der Beantwortung mancher Fragen. Als Folge dieser doppelten Selektion von Antwortenden, die unter anderem das Resultat einer besonderen Affinität zu den Befragungsthemen sein kann, können die Befragungsergebnisse ein verzerrtes Bild der tatsächlichen Einschätzung der Bevölkerung zeichnen. Darüber hinaus ist es nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass beim Thema Klimawandel vielfach nach Gesichtspunkten des sozial Wünschenswerten, anstatt wahrheitsgemäß, geantwortet wird.AbstractThis article presents results that are obtained from a survey among private households in Germany, which took place in the fall of 2012. A key result is that in comparison with a range of other global challenges, respondents are less concerned with fighting climate change, a remarkable outcome given that the share of climate change skeptics in the survey is likely to be lower than in the population owing to selfselection problems. This article addresses such self-selection problems, as well as other shortcomings of surveys, and provides for a discussion on how to cope with them.

Services to the Field: An Approach for Resource Constrained Sensor/Actor Networks

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

2009 International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops, 2009

Nowadays more and more devices of daily life are con-nected to each other and are integrated into... more

Efficient communication in control-oriented embedded networks

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

2009 IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies & Factory Automation, 2009

In the recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have drawn a lot of attention and a lot of w... more

Service Migration Scenarios for Embedded Networks

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

More and more devices are becoming network enabled and are integrated within one large, distribut... more

Generating a Tailored Middleware for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

Wireless sensor networks are characterized by resource constraints. Therefore, today's senso... more

∈SOA - Service Oriented Architectures adapted for embedded networks

by Andreas Scholz and Stefan Sommer

The development of embedded networks poses several challenges: complexity and size of the network... more The development of embedded networks poses several challenges: complexity and size of the network, heterogeneity of nodes, and infrastructure dynamics. From other IT domains it is known that many of these challenges can be met by a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). In the context of embedded networks, an application can be interpreted as a set of interacting services that produce, consume or manipulate data. However, the hard boundary conditions of embedded networks, such as limited resources and real time requirements, have to be taken into account. This paper discusses an embedded SOA (eSOA) concept based on the definition of an embedded service (eService) term and the differences to traditional Web services based SOAs. The paper describes a middleware platform that supports the execution and development of embedded network applications by employing model based code generation and a pattern based service composition model. The advantages of the approach are showcased using an application from the building automation sector, focusing on the energy management of smart buildings.

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