Research

Research Priorities: Robotics, embodied AI (embodied artificial intelligence), collective intelligence, human-robot interaction, motor intelligence

Sami Haddadin is an electrical engineer and computer scientist who conducts research in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence and human motor control.

A strong interdisciplinary focus of his work – in addition to the development of a wide variety of intelligent machines – lies in the interface between the development of intelligent machines and the basic principles of the human body and its functionality. Their understanding is key to the development of autonomously interacting machines that will support humans in the future in key areas such as work, health, mobility, the environment, or space.

In addition to exploring the fundamentals of robotics and artificial intelligence, the overarching goal of Sami Haddadin's research group is to make state-of-the-art robotics accessible to laypeople for the first time utilizing intelligent programming, learning and interaction systems that interactively link humans and machines. Commercial introduction of this technology can thus represent a change towards intelligent machines meeting people's needs more broadly, beyond industrial use. Examples can be found in healthcare in assisting the sick, elderly or disabled. The concept developed by Sami Haddadin and other researchers for cost-effective, flexible and intuitively operable robots turns them into aids for humans.

From Sami Haddadin's point of view, there are still some significant challenges ahead before robotics, and artificial intelligence can be merged into machine intelligence: For one, the technological boundaries of sensorimotor and integrated system design must be significantly expanded in order to get closer to the unique performance and embodied intelligence of the human body. Secondly, the two previously separate paradigms of model-based control and regulation and data-driven machine learning algorithms must be united in such a way that the next generation of AI algorithms seamlessly bridges the gap between the physical and virtual worlds.

Career

• since 2018 Chair of Robotics and Systems Intelligence, Executive Director, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI, formerly MSRM), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
• 2016 / 2017 Offers from Stanford University, Stanford, USA, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
• 2014‐2017 Professor, Faculty for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Director, Institute of Automatic Control, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, Germany
• 2016 Founder, Franka Emika GmbH, Munich, Germany
• 2014‐2016 CEO and Founder, KBee AG, Munich, Germany
• 2012‐2014 CEO and Founder, Kastanienbaum GmbH, Munich, Germany
• 2013‐2014 Project Manager “Terrestrial Assistive Robotics”, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• 2012‐2014 Scientific Coordinator “Human‐Centered Robotics”, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• 2011‐2013 Visiting Scholar and Scientific Advisor, IT‐Company Willow Garage, Menlo Park, USA
• 2011‐2012 Team Leader “Human‐Robot Interaction”, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• 2011 Visiting Scholar, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
• 2010‐2011 Coordinator “Human‐Robot Interaction”, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• 2010‐2013 Lecturer, TUM, Munich, Germany
• 2005‐2013 Research Associate, Robotics and Mechatronics Center, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• 2006‐2011 Dissertation, Rheinisch‐Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Aachen, Germany
• 1999‐2005 Degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and technology management, Universities of Hannover, Germany, Oulu, Finland, and TU Munich, LMU Munich as well as FernUniversität Hagen, Germany

Functions

• since 2020 Chair of Bavarian AI Council, Munich, Germany
• since 2019 Member, Future Council of the Bavarian Economy, Munich, Germany
• 2018‐2020 Member, High‐Level Expert Group on “Artificial Intelligence” (AI HLEG), European Union (EU)
• 2018‐2020 Member as external expert, Study Commission “Artificial Intelligence – Social Responsibility and Economic, Social and Ecological Potential”, German Bundestag, Berlin, Germany
• 2018‐2019 Member, High‐Level Industrial Roundtable “Industry 2030”, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

Projects

• since 2021 Principal Investigator, Subproject “DARKO – Dynamic agile production robots that learn and optimise knowledge and operations”, Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020 (H2020), European Commission
• since 2020 Principal Investigator, Lighthouse Initiative “KI.FABRIK Bavaria”, Munich, Germany
• since 2019 Principal Investigator, Subproject Clusters of Excellence “CeTI”, German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
• since 2018 Principal Investigator, Lighthouse Initiative “Geriatronics”, Munich, Germany
• 2016‐2020 Principal Investigator, subproject “SOFTPRO – Synergy‐based open‐source foundations and technologies for prosthetics and rehabilitation”, H2020, European Commission

Honours and Memberships

• since 2021 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• 2021 Technology Transfer Award, euRobotics AISBL, Brussels, Belgium
• 2021 Collection of 41 influential patents in German history since 1877: Tactile Robot (2015), German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), Munich, Germany
• since 2020 Member, acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Germany
• 2019 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, DFG, Germany
• 2017 Deutscher Zukunftspreis, Federal President’s Award for Innovation in Science and Technology, Germany
• 2015 Alfried Krupp Award for Young University Lecturers, Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, Essen, Germany
• 2015 Early Career Award for Young Researchers in Robotics, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS), Piscataway, USA
• 2012 Georges Giralt PhD Award for best European Dissertation in Robotics, euRobotics AISBL, Brussels, Belgium