Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alin Albu-Schäffer

EDUCATION

2002: PhD Degree at the Technical University Munich, Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology

1993 – 1994: TU Munich, Electrical Engineering

1988 – 1993: Technical University Timisoara, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, specialization: Industrial Robots

 

EMPLOYMENT

04.2013 – pres.: Full professor, Technical University Munich, Department of Computer Science, Chair of “Sensor Based Robotic Systems and Intelligent Assistance Systems”

07.2012 – pres.: Director of the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, DLR – German Aerospace Center

07.2009 – pres.: Head of the Department “Mechatronic Components and Systems” in the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics

2009: I was offered an appointment as full professor at the Technical University of Vienna. I declined the position in favour of the DLR department lead.

2007-2012: Lecturer at the TU Munich, Department of Electrical Engineering.

2005: DLR – Coordinator of the “Intelligent Manipulation Group”

Coordination of several EU-projects

2002: DLR – Research engineer

1996: DLR – PhD student

1995: DLR – start of appointment at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics

 

AWARDS and HONOURS

• Doctor Honoris Causa, Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara, Romania, 2016
• IEEE Fellow Grade "for contributions to compliant and lightweight robots", 2016
• EU-Robotics TechTransfer Award, Third Prize, on behalf of DLR, together with the Spin-Off Company Kastanienbaum, 2016
• ICRA Best Automation Award Finalist, for the paper: A Passivity-Based Approach for Trajectory Tracking and Link-Side Damping of Compliantly Actuated Robots: M. Keppler, D. Lakatos, Ch. Ott, A. Albu-Schäffer, 2016
• IEEE King-Sun Fu Best Paper Award of the Transactions on Robotics for the paper “Robots Driven by Compliant Actuators: Optimal Control Under Actuation Constraints”, 2014
• IEEE King-Sun Fu Best Paper Award of the Transactions on Robotics for the paper “Human Like Adaptation of Force and Impedance in Stable and Unstable Interactions”, 2012
• IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2012) Best Video Award, as Coordinator of the VIACTORS consortium, 2012
• IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2012), IROS 2012 Best Jubilee Video Award, with a summary of DLR research results on variable compliance actuator robots, 2012
• EU-Robotics TechTransfer Award, on behalf of DLR, together with Ralf Koeppe (KUKA), for the technology transfer of the light-weight robot, Vasteras, 2011
• ICRA 2010 Best Cognitive Robotics Paper Award Finalist for the paper: “Biomimetic motor behaviour for simultaneous adaptation of force, impedance and trajectory in interaction tasks” G. Ganesh, A. Albu-Schäffer, M. Haruno, M. Kawato, E. Burdet, 2010
• Walter Reis Innovation Award for Robotics 2010, 3. prize.
• ICRA 2009 Best Service Robotics Award for the paper: The “DLR Crash Report”: Towards a Standard Crash-Testing Protocol for Robot Safety - Part I: Results – Part II: Discussions, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Sami Haddadin, A. Albu-Schäffer, M. Frommberger, J. Rossmann, G. Hirzinger, 2009
• ICRA 2009 Best Video Award for "Rolling' Justin - Mobile Platform with Variable Base" Ch. Borst, T. Wimböck, F. Schmidt, M. Fuchs, B. Brunner, F. Zacharias, P. Robuffo-Giordano, R. Konietschke, W. Sepp, S. Fuchs, Ch. Rink, A. Albu-Schäffer, G. Hirzinger, IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation
• ICRA 2009 Best Video Award Finalist for "The DLR MiroSurge - A Robotic System for Surgery" R. Konietschke, U. Hagn, M. Nickl, S. Jörg, A. Tobergte, G. Passig, U. Seibold, L. Le-Tien, B. Kübler, M. Gröger, F. Fröhlich, Ch. Rink, A. Albu-Schäffer, M. Grebenstein, T. Ortmaier, G. Hirzinger
• Best Application Paper Award for the paper: “Collision Detection & Reaction: A Contribution to Safe Physical Human-Robot Interaction” IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS2008, Sami Haddadin, A. Albu-Schäffer, Alessandro De Luca, Gerd Hirzinger.
• Outstanding Paper Award for the paper: “The DLR MIRO: a versatile lightweight robot for surgical applications”, Industrial Robot Journal, 2008, U. Hagn et. al.
• 3. Prize ICCAS/Hearth Centre Leipzig CURAC 7. Conference of the German Society of Computer and Robot Assisted Surgery „DLR MiroSurge-Towards Versatility in Surgical A. Tobergte et.al., 2008
• Outstanding Paper Award for the paper “The DLR lightweight robot - design and control concepts for robots in human environments” Industrial Robot Journal, 2007, A. Albu-Schäffer, S. Haddadin, Ch. Ott, A. Stemmer, T. Wimböck und G. Hirzinger.
• DLR Science Award 2007: Award of the Management Board of DLR for the paper „A Unified Passivity-based Control Framework for Position, Torque and Impedance Control of Flexible Joint Robots”, A. Albu-Schäffer.
• DLR Innovation Award 2007, to O. Eiberger, A. Beyer, M. Schedl, A. Albu-Schäffer, G. Plank, G. Schreiber for the technology transfer of the DLR Light-weight Robot, 28./29.11.2007, Göttingen, 2007
• ICRA 2007 Best Video Award for the contribution: „A Humanoid Upper Body System for Two-Handed Manipulation“, Ch. Borst, Ch. Ott, T. Wimböck, B. Brunner, F. Zacharias, B. Bäuml, U. Hillenbrandt, S. Haddadin, A. Albu-Schäffer, G. Hirzinger, 2007
• Best Paper Award in at-Automatisierungstechnik 2005 with the paper: Kartesische Impedanzregelung von Robotern mit elastischen Gelenken: Ein passivitätsbasierter Ansatz, Ch. Ott, A. Albu-Schäffer, A. Kugi, S. Stramigioli, and G. Hirzinger, at-Automatisierungstechnik, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, s. 378-388, August 2005.
• Best Paper Award on Mechatronics VDI Wissensforum IWB GmbH T. Ortmaier, C. Ott, H. Weiß, U. Hagn, M. Grebenstein, M. Nickl, A. Albu-Schäffer, S. Jörg, R. Konietschke, G. Hirzinger, Essenreiter, Bertram, 2005.
• VDI/VDE award of a supervised master thesis (Christian Geist) 2003.