Neuroinformatics and Cognitive Robotics Lab

We are an associated partner of the Robotics Institute Germany (RIG).

Our research is oriented towards two long-term goals: While the goal of neuroinformatics is the development of machine intelligence by understanding and emulating neural information processing and learning processes, cognitive robotics aims at the emergence of action-oriented intelligence in sensorimotor technical systems, such as robots or autonomous vehicles. Both areas complement each other both from a methodological and an application-oriented point of view and are being worked on in parallel and across the board. They are funded by the EU, the DFG, the federal government, the Free State of Thuringia and industry.

Our research interests in the area of neuroinformatics and machine learning include modern deep learning methods with applications in computer vision and robotics as well as reinforcement learning for the acquisition and coordination of sensorimotor behavior.

Our research interests in Cognitive Robotics include multimodal person perception, visual scene analysis, person-centered autonomous robot navigation, and multimedia human-robot interaction with applications in social assistance and rehabilitation robotics. Our focus is on everyday usability in real-world domestic and public use scenarios.

Important research highlights of our field were the development of the world's first mobile shopping assistance robot TOOMAS (2007) suitable for everyday use, the mobile home-based assistance robots (Companions) for elderly people(CompanionAble 2012, ALIAS 2013, SERROGA 2015, SYMPARTNER 2018), and the mobile robotic rehabilitation assistants ROREAS (2015) and ROGER (2019) for gait training in rehabilitation after strokes and orthopedic surgeries.... Link