Director of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR, German Aerospace Center
Head of the Department of Computer Science, TUM, Technical University Munich
Title: A Human-Centric Perspective on Robotics and AI
Summary: Robotics and AI, consequently developed from a human-centric perspective, is going to have a disruptive impact on our society in areas such as health-care, industry, or services. The talk will highlight some examples of successful robotics applications and discuss their evolution through the ongoing developments of AI. Putting the human in the centre of robot development also means to use robotics research in order to better understand human motion and intelligence in a synthetizing, way by using the analytic tools of robotics. I will particularly highlight in this respect the interplay of biomechanics and neuro-control with robot design and advanced robotics control. Our society can directly benefit from this research through the development of better human-machine interfaces, robotized medical procedures, and prosthetic and rehabilitation devices which will even more reduce the barrier between humans and robots in the future.
Bio: Alin Albu-Schäffer received his M.S. in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Timisoara, Romania in 1993 and his Ph.D. in automatic control from the Technical University of Munich in 2002. Since 2012 he is the head of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which he joined in 1995. Moreover, he is a professor at the Technical University of Munich, holding the Chair for "Sensor Based Robotic Systems and Intelligent Assistance Systems". His research interests range from robot design and control to robot intelligence and human neuroscience. He is an author of more than 200 peer reviewed journal and conference papers and received several awards, including the IEEE King-Sun Fu Best Paper Award of the Transactions on Robotics in 2012 and 2014.
