Past, Present & Future of Robotics
Symposium with alumni and companions celebrated FZI Director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Dillmann on November 19
Research Focus: Applied Artificial Intelligence
To honor the scientific achievements of FZI Scientific Director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Dillmann, the FZI held a symposium on November 19, 2024, in the Smart Production Park/Karlsruhe with alumni and companions in a familiar setting. FZI Department Heads Dr.-Ing. Georg Heppner, Tristan Schnell, and KIT Professor Dr.-Ing. Arne Rönnau were significantly involved. The afternoon event was dedicated to Prof. Dillmann’s favorite research topic: robotics – with a look at the past, present, and future.
The symposium was opened by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arne Rönnau (Institute for Information Management in Engineering, KIT), FZI Executive Director Jan Wiesenberger, and KIT Vice President Research Prof. Dr. Oliver Kraft, with introductory words to an audience of around 130 guests.
The contributions of Dr. Martin Huck (Huck Consulting) and Dr. Lennart Puck illustrated the essential importance Prof. Dillmann has attached to working with young academics in his 37-year career as a professor. Dr. Huck recounted his time as one of Prof. Dillmann’s first doctoral students in the early 1990s. After that, Dr. Lennart Puck, who just completed his doctorate on July 22 on the topic of “Risk-Aware Exploration of Walking Robots in Unknown and Unstructured Environments” and then transferred from the FZI Research Center for Information Technology to the European Space Agency (ESA), spoke as the most recent doctoral student of Prof. Dillmann. So far, Prof. Dillmann has supervised the promotion of 113 scientists in his career, with more to come in the future.
Scientific colleagues such as Prof. Fulvio Mastrogiovanni (Università degli Studi di Genova) and Dr. Peter Weckesser (Chief Digital Officer at Schneider Electric) then charted the path of robotics in research and application before Prof. Dillmann himself provided insights into “Robotic Innovation made in Karlsruhe”. He was joined by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arne Rönnau to outline visions for the future of robotics.
The symposium was concluded after dinner with two laudatory speeches for Prof. Dillmann. These were given by Professor Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Uwe Spetzger, Director of the Clinic for Neurosurgery at the Städtisches Klinikum Karlsruhe and KIT professor, and Prof. Bruno Siciliano, who holds a professorship in control technology and robotics at the Università di Napoli Federico II. The evening ended with a friendly and cheerful get-together.
Prof. Rüdiger Dillmann
Prof. Dillmann studied electrical engineering with a focus on biocybernetics at the former University of Karlsruhe, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
After completing his diploma and doctorate in electrical engineering under Prof. Paul M. Frank, he habilitated in 1986 on the subject of learning robots under the engineering and information scientist Prof. Ulrich Rembold, one of the FZI founding fathers.
In 1987, Prof. Dillmann took over the Institute for Automation and Robotics professorship at the University of Karlsruhe, now KIT. From 2001 until today, he has been Scientific Director at the FZI Research Center for Information Technology in the “Intelligent Systems and Production Engineering” division and was also active here as an Executive Director for nine years.
Prof. Rüdiger Dillmann also founded and directed the “Humanoids and Intelligence Systems Laboratories” at KIT as of 2008. He additionally coordinated the collaborative research project 588 “Humanoid Robots – Learning and Cooperating Multimodal Robots”.
In the many years of his successful scientific work, Prof. Dillmann was entrusted with further positions, duties, and honors. He acted as a reviewer for the German Research Foundation (DFG) and was appointed IEEE and IROS Fellow. He has also repeatedly chaired various expert groups and held key positions on the program and organizing committees of conferences such as ICRA 2005 and 2013, CBS 2019, Humanoids 2003, 2010 and 2011, IROS 2010, CogSys 2008, IAS 2008 and 2019, as well as AMS2009. He has also supported the spin-off of numerous start-ups.
