Launch of the Robotics Institute Germany

Intelligent robots are not only transforming traditional industrial production but are increasingly making their way into new sectors and revolutionize life in healthcare, construction, caregiving, and agriculture. Robotics is regarded as a driver of innovation and economic growth, making it a key technology for Germany as an industrial hub. “With its strong focus on science and business, Germany has huge potential to become the global number one with its innovations in the field of AI-based robotics,” says Prof. Alexander Verl, Head of the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW) at the University of Stuttgart. “And as a partner of the Robotics Institute Germany, we want to help leverage this potential.”

The new consortium unites leading universities and non-university research institutions aiming to leverage synergies and establish a globally recognized, robust robotics network. Under the umbrella of the RIG, research in AI-based robotics in Germany aims to become globally competitive, sharing infrastructure and resources, nurturing talent, establishing benchmarks, and expanding industry transfer. “The RIG is more than just a nationwide network that brings together the best scientists,” says Prof. Kai Arras from the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Stuttgart. “It is a catalyst for innovation and economic progress.”

As part of RIG, Arras and his team from the AI Institute aim to develop benchmarks for the standardized assessment of new robot systems, making them comparable for practical use. The focus is on leveraging the latest AI technologies to enable robots to acquire deep semantic and social understanding of their environments. As the former head of robotics research at Robert Bosch GmbH, he is also familiar with the needs of industry and will contribute this expertise to the design of the RIG's topics and talent programs.

ISW brings its expertise in industrial control engineering and in the field of engineering tools for industrial robotics to the consortium and aims to strengthen entrepreneurship in the field of AI robotics. The institute serves as a bridge between the RIG and its expertise on one side, and industry and the start-up scene on the other. Together with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Verl aims to expand and consolidate the transfer of innovative and marketable robotics technologies into practice. In cooperation with ARENA 2036, a research campus of the University of Stuttgart, start-ups from the production technology and mobility sectors will be integrated with the RIG.

In addition to the ARENA 2036 mobility campus, the construction robotics laboratory of the Cluster of Excellence Integrative Computational Design and Construction for Architecture (IntCDC) in Waiblingen and the Software Defined Manufacturing (SDM) laboratory of the ISW provide further infrastructure for excellent and application-oriented research within the RIG. In addition to the University of Stuttgart, the new consortium includes the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) as funded partners, along with Europe's largest innovation campus for artificial intelligence, Cyber Valley, and the University of Tübingen as associated partners. "The RIG now offers us the opportunity to further consolidate and strengthen the ecosystem in the Stuttgart/Tübingen region," explain Verl and Arras.

The Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 20 million euros (duration: July 1, 2024 to June 31, 2028). Under the leadership of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which serves as the spokesperson, the RIG includes the University of Stuttgart and the following institutions: the University of Bonn, the Technical University of Berlin, the Technical University of Darmstadt, the University of Bremen, RWTH Aachen University, the Technical University of Dresden, the Technical University of Nuremberg, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), three Fraunhofer Institutes (IPA, IOSB, and IML), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), and 19 associated partners, including the Cyber Valley innovation campus and the University of Tübingen.