Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics

Head of the Institute: Prof. Dr. Alin Albu-Schäffer

The long-term goal of our robotics activities has always been based on the idea of relieving man from inhuman and dangerous tasks. While in the early years of robotics in our department the main focus of interest has been restricted to designing robot sensors (and sensor-based man-machine interfaces) and closing smart sensory feedback loops, in the last years the activities have widened up considerably. Presently the general goal is the design of a new generation of multisensory light-weight robots for space applications which are operable by astronauts as well as from groundstations, based on powerful telerobotic concepts and man-machine-interfaces. This goal is characterized by a high degree of interdisciplinarity and consists of a few major task areas

Mechatronics - sensory and actuator developments
Learning - adaptation and self-improvement
Vision - real-time visual skills for intelligent robot control
Telerobotics - remote control concepts for telecontrol, X-by-wire, and space
Space Robotics - robotics space applications
Medical Applications - robotics in medical applications

While in the early years of our robotic acitivities cooperation with terrestrial industry was predominant, the last 5 years have been characterized by close cooperation and contracts with space industry. The space robot technology experiment ROTEX - Europe's first active step into space robotics - was massively based on the concepts and systems developed here (multisensory gripper, local autonomy, telerobotic station); nevertheless in the future there will be considerable effort to transfer technology developed for space (e.g. light-weight concepts) back into terrestrial applications.

Staff at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics

Robotic Systems

Mobile Humanoid "Rollin' Justin"

The mobile robotic system Justin with its compliant controlled light weight arms and its two four finger hands is an ideal experimental platform for dual handed mobil manipulation. The newly developed mobile platform allows the long range autonomous operation of the system. The individually movable, spring born wheels match the special requirements of “Justin's” upper body during manipulation tasks. Various sensors allow the 3D reconstruction of the robot's environment and therefore enable Justin to perform given tasks autonomously.

Hand Arm System

The DLR Hand Arm System is an anthropomorphic robot developed at DLR using variable stiffness actuators (VSA). It is intended to approach its human archetype in size, weight, and performance. The focus of the development is on robustness, high dynamics, and dexterity.

Light-Weight Robot

Hands need arms... and vice versa. We have long experience with the development of light-weight robot arms, which exhibit a 1:1 force:weight ratio, are accurate yet so fast you can catch balls with them.

DLR's Hands

One of our major mechatronic developments concerns that of highly integrated, multi-sensory hands. These hands are more dextrous than other mechatronic hands, while maintaining excellent force-to-weight ratios.

Legged Robots

Legged locomotion seems to be a promising, versatile approach for robot mobility in various environments. In order to investigate the capabilities of walking robots, two prototypes have been built at the institute - the DLR Biped and the hexapedal DLR Crawler. Both robots are used as testbeds for the development and evaluation of advanced control and gait algorithms.

3D Modeller

The DLR 3D Modeller is a hand-held multi sensory Device, consisting of a laser range scanner, a laser stripe Profiler and Stereo cameras. It can be used to obtain accurate 3D data of any object.

Medical Robotics

In the last decades robotics and mechatronics have found their way into many medical applications. Especially surgery has shown large potential for the use of robotic systems. The goal in medical robotics is thereby not to replace the surgeon by a robot, but to provide the surgeon with new treatment options to the benefit of the patient. Although this technology is still in its early stages, it will significantly change future surgery.

Mechatronics devices

Apart from the above mechatronic systems, the research path followed by the institute has lead to various other mechatronic devices, including new sensor and drive concepts.

Bionics

Efficiency and flexibility of biological systems is still unreached in current robotic systems. Biological evolution formed highly specialized systems, perfectly designed with respect to material, force-to-weight ratio and energy turnover. We study human systems in order to improve our robotics.

Telerobotics & VR

In telepresence, a human operator immerses him/herself into a remote environment and controls a tele-operated device on motion and force level. By means of a multimodal human machine interface (HMI) the human perceives and acts as in the real world. Our research group places special emphasis on the haptic feedback.

Vision

Today in robotics, computer vision in a broad sense can be regarded as the key technology for realizing systems with an enhanced level of autonomy. In this domain, we tackle problems from a wide methodological range, from image-based tracking to scene understanding and world modeling.

Space Robotics

In DLR`s programmatic structure space robotics is a so-called core topic within the program theme “technology for space systems”. This core topic is basically subdivided into the following areas and “internal projects”

Demonstrators

We use many of our research results in larger integrated platforms. Although mostly not at production status, these platforms clearly demonstrate the real-world applicability of our research.