To strengthen cooperation within the DLR institutes and facilities in the fields of space, aeronautics and transport, to make optimum use of synergy effects and to avoid thematic duplication, the Institute of System Dynamics and Control (SR) will be split up on 1 January 2025 and assigned to neighboring institutes.

Research and the development of methods and tools in the SR fields of modelling, AI and control, as well as optimisation, will continue at the Oberpfaffenhofen site. Existing tasks and projects will continue, all laboratories and test benches will continue to be operated and existing collaborations will remain unaffected by the realignment. 

Research topics and employees will be allocated as follows:

• Space: on-orbit servicing, launcher systems, terramechanics, rovers, robotics and production of the future will be assigned to the new Department of System Dynamics at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics.

• Aviation:

o control and load-relevant modelling of flexible aircraft, as well as the control of aeroelastic systems (including active flutter suppression and gust load reduction) will be combined in the new Department of Control of Aeroelastic Systems as a branch of the Institute of Aeroelasticity (headquartered in Göttingen).

o Flight control of highly dynamic flight systems and flight simulation (including robotic motion simulators) are assigned to the new Department of Flight Control and Simulation as a branch of the Institute of Flight Systems (headquartered in Braunschweig).

o Aircraft system pre-design and modelling of energy systems for emission-reduced solutions, thermal system modelling and pre-design will be located in the new Aircraft Thermal- and Energy Systems group as a branch of the Aviation System Concepts and Evaluation department of the Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics (headquarters in Hamburg).

• Transport:

Research in the areas of road and rail vehicles (including mechatronic by-wire high-tech chassis, AI and optimisation-based chassis control, hybrid state estimation, electromobility) will be assigned to the new Vehicle System Dynamics and Control Technology department as a branch of the Institute of Vehicle Concepts (headquartered in Stuttgart).