The main area of research focus at HFT Stuttgart is the development of planning systems / tools and a service-oriented software architecture which supports sustainable urban development.

The drafting of a strategic energy master plan is dependent not only on the detailed description of the status quo at all energy consumers and producers by protagonists such as energy providers, municipal authorities and facility managers, but also the automated calculation of potential development scenarios.

The various simulation tools available for the simulation of buildings, on-grid infrastructure and traffic are now to be fully integrated into a service-oriented software architecture.

Key elements include the design of a standardized data model as well as standardized interfaces with the individual services that are to be embedded into the service-oriented architecture. This necessitates the development of a variety of services required in connection with sensor observation (SOS), geographical data (WFS), simulation processes (WPS) and 3D visualization (3DPS). The aim is not to develop entirely new services, but instead to implement solutions based on refined versions of existing software systems. This in turn requires the development of adapters which package each piece of existing software as a service.