Control and Robotics

Prof. Martin Buss is a Carl von Linde Senior Alumni Fellow as well as the holder of the chair of Automatic Control Engineering at TUM. In 2010, he was awarded the ERC Advanced Grant Seamless Human-Robot Interaction in Dynamically Changing Environments (SHRINE) which is also the research project he concentrates on as a Carl von Linde Senior Fellow.

SHRINE takes an integrated approach with pioneering character and is strongly interdisciplinary bridging engineering approaches and human sciences. It constitutes visionary high-risk research with high-impact on future emerging technologies in the fields of strongly needed personal assistant and care robots, human-robot collaboration in manufacturing, and autonomous robots in human-centered environments.

In order to alleviate barriers that prevent the robots of today from smoothly interacting with humans in an efficient and socially compatible manner, SHRINE pushes robotics research on multiple levels. The SHRINE team conducts control theoretic research that lays the fundamentals for stable and robust controller design in robotics. Research on non-prehensile dynamic manipulation extends the manipulation repertoire of robots, while challenges in biped walking are addressed in order to allow for robust legged locomotion in human environments. The SHRINE team further pursues the goal of efficient and socially compatible human-robot interaction through investigation and modeling of human behavior and transfer of the obtained results to human-inspired controllers. Interaction scenarios cover non-contact situations, e.g. humans approaching or avoiding each other when walking in public spaces, as well as contact situations, e.g. joint manipulation of bulky objects.

Before winning the Fellowship, Prof. Martin Buss was already an active member of the TUM-IAS as a host of the (now alumni) Focus Group Cognitive Technology.

Prof. Dongheui Lee is a Carl von Linde Junior Fellow. She is an assistant professor at the Institute of Automatic Control Engineering. She is the head of the "Dynamic Human Robot Interaction for Automation System Lab". Her research aims at developing intuitive robots with which general users can communicate without the need of engineering knowledge or a user manual. In order to realize an intuitive robot and to satisfy humans’ expectations for a robotic companion, Prof. Lee proposes to study about ourselves as ’human beings’ and transfer the discovered mechanisms to the robotic system. The research is divided into three categories: biologically inspired skill acquisition and action, close human-robot interaction, focusing on cognitive interaction and physical interaction, and understanding human perception for developing humanoid perception.

Before transferring to this group, Prof. Dongheui Lee was active in the (alumni) Focus Group Cognitive Technology.