The networking and continuous use of the flow of data and information along the entire value chain of construction, from design, construction, prefabrication of subsystems and assembly to the operation of construction projects and their integration into the construction process, offers considerable potential for the realization of safe, economical and resource-saving construction methods of the future. This "excellence in application" is the focus of the initiative. It is of great importance for the performance of the social task of engineering sciences. The RPTU has extensive expertise in construction research in this area.

The cross-sectional topic "Automation and Digitization" is based on the basic technologies of intelligent, networked, collaborative embedded systems, which are used to acquire and process digital data and data models. Intensive research is also being conducted on this topic at the RPTU.

The digital transformation of the entire construction process, including condition monitoring, damage detection and secure and permanently available documentation, represents a major current social challenge with considerable potential in terms of resource efficiency, energy system transformation and the availability of housing and other infrastructure.

The RPTU and the institutes therefore have the necessary research competence to take the next step: by combining the competences available at the RPTU across departments and involving the institutes DFKI as well as Fraunhofer IESE and ITWM, while at the same time concentrating on the construction site of the future, the potential area achieves a unique selling point of construction-oriented engineering research at the RPTU.

The construction site of the future will be characterised by industrial flexible prefabrication of complex, standardised prefabricated components and their automatic assembly using automation equipment and data models. Automated construction production companies will be able to serve a high number of variants with a wide range of components and thus meet the mass individualization in the construction industry.

The (partially) automated construction of buildings requires that prefabricated components can be automatically assembled on the building site in an industrialised and digitised process. This is the reason for a demand for precision that does not exist in traditional, craft-oriented building, as well as the digital availability of all necessary information. It is also necessary to further develop materials and to think up new joining techniques that are structurally adaptive and require as few simple motor processes as possible. Of central importance for the in-depth understanding of materials, components and joining techniques with a high degree of detail is the use of the large computer tomograph, which will not be available until 2021. This will enable a worldwide unique investigation of the load-bearing and deformation behaviour of new types of force-flow oriented fastening and joining elements and whose intensive use will contribute considerably to the international visibility of this potential area.

One consequence of the increased precision is the reduction of tolerance-compensating substructures, which are used today as a link between components of different trades. The monitoring and condition control of the structure over the entire life cycle can be realized with the help of digital models and sensors.

In the Engineering Alliance, selected topics of previous research focuses of the RPTU are thus newly linked, combined and focused for application in the production process on the construction site through interdepartmental cooperation. This is intended to establish the topic area of the digitalised process chain with planning, automated production with the clear engineer-driven focus "assembly on the construction site" up to data utilisation in monitoring and operation within the framework of digital construction in interdepartmental engineering research. While the entire horizontal chain from the planning to the use of the buildings is considered, the vertical scaling from simulation via laboratory and small-scale experiments to large-scale demonstration is also to be covered. The Engineering Alliance is thus dedicated to the cross-sectional topic of "automation", which has a high future potential in the engineering sciences, as well as its application and implementation in specific engineering issues, in which the RPTU has already had an independent profile in many individual fields for many years.

For the development and implementation of automated assembly processes, both structural and joining technology innovations are required.