Institute of Transportation Systems
Mobility has a high priority in our society. People want to reach their destination safely, comfortably and quickly. Goods must be transported cost-effectively over short and long distances. The consequences of mobility are manifested in environmental pollution, accidents and traffic jams, and are intensifying as the volume of traffic continues to grow. We face up to these challenges. We develop solutions for safe and efficient mobility in the future.
Our mission
Shaping the mobility of people and the transportation of goods - that is our mission. We focus our research and development on automotive and rail systems as well as traffic and mobility management. The guiding goals of our work are: Safety, efficiency, sustainability, cost-effectiveness and quality. Our research always focuses on the overall transportation system with all its interactions.
To support our scientific work, we develop and operate large-scale research facilities ranging from test vehicles to complex simulation laboratories.
We design, develop and evaluate user-friendly and application-oriented solutions and systems for situation detection, assessment and control, for safety and dispatching as well as for assistance and automation.
The institute
Around 250 scientific employees - engineers, psychologists and computer scientists - work at the Institute of Transportation Systems Engineering at the Braunschweig and Berlin sites. They carry out research and development for automotive and rail systems and for traffic management. And in doing so, they contribute to increasing the safety and efficiency of traffic on roads and railways. The close cooperation between DLR's institutes and facilities enables synergies to be exploited with aerospace and energy technology.
The Institute of Transportation Systems was founded in 2001 under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karsten Lemmer at the Braunschweig Research Airport. It has grown steadily since then and is consistently expanding its research activities. Our scientists work closely with partners and customers from industry, science and politics on a national and international level. After three years of institute management by Prof. Katharina Seifert, Prof. Michael Ortgiese has been acting director since October 1, 2021.
The quality of the institute's work is certified according to ISO 9001. The RailSiTe® railroad laboratory is accredited as a test laboratory for the conformity and interoperability of ETCS subsystems and components according to ISO 17025.