NHR@FAU

NHR@FAU
Name	NHR@FAU
Formation	2014
Headquarters	Erlangen, Bavaria
Location	Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Director	Hans‑Jürgen Thies
Staff	120

NHR@FAU is a multidisciplinary research center located at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen‑Nürnberg that focuses on novel human‑robot interaction, autonomous systems, and cyber‑physical integration. The center brings together experts from robotics, computer science, electrical engineering, cognitive science, and medicine to pursue applied research, translational technology, and training. It maintains collaborations with industry partners and academic institutions across Europe and internationally.

Overview

NHR@FAU operates at the intersection of robotics and human factors, engaging with projects that span humanoid robotics, surgical robotics, industrial automation, and assistive technologies. The center integrates work inspired by pioneers and organizations such as Isaac Asimov, Giulio Natta, Karl von Frisch, Hugo de Garis, and institutions including Max Planck Society, Fraunhofer Society, Technical University of Munich, RWTH Aachen University, and University of Oxford. Its teams publish in venues like IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, International Journal of Robotics Research, Science Robotics, Nature Machine Intelligence, and present at conferences including ICRA, IROS, HRI (conference), and NeurIPS. The center’s funding sources have included grants from the European Research Council, the German Research Foundation, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany), and industry sponsors such as Siemens, Bosch, BMW, and KUKA.

History

Founded in 2014 within FAU, the center evolved from earlier robotics labs associated with the faculties linked to figures like Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and institutions such as Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst. Early milestones included partnerships with teams from Fraunhofer IPA, collaborative projects with Siemens Healthineers, and involvement in European consortia led by entities like ETH Zurich and Politecnico di Milano. NHR@FAU attracted attention for demonstrations that connected research strands exemplified by work at Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, and Harvard University. Over time the center expanded to host interdisciplinary groups drawing expertise associated with laboratories at UCL, Imperial College London, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Delft University of Technology.

Research and Programs

Research themes include shared autonomy, tactile sensing, motion planning, learning from demonstration, human intention prediction, and safe control. Projects reference algorithmic approaches developed in the literature by teams at Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Facebook AI Research, and academic groups at University of California, Berkeley and Princeton University. Application domains cover robotic surgery influenced by advances from Intuitive Surgical, prosthetics research echoing efforts at ReWalk Robotics and Össur, collaborative manufacturing in the style of Industry 4.0 pilots, and eldercare systems inspired by trials in Japan and Netherlands. NHR@FAU leads doctoral and postdoctoral programs modeled on graduate schools such as IMPRS, DAAD fellowships, and Marie Skłodowska‑Curie networks, while hosting research clusters aligned with thematic calls by Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.

Facilities and Infrastructure

The center’s laboratories house humanoid platforms, mobile manipulators, force‑torque instrumentation, motion capture arenas, and mock clinical suites. Hardware inventories reference platforms similar to those produced by Boston Dynamics, SoftBank Robotics, KUKA, ABB, and sensor suites comparable to Intel RealSense, Velodyne, SICK, and Qualisys systems. Computational infrastructure supports GPU clusters using architectures from NVIDIA and AMD, and employs software stacks that interoperate with ROS, TensorFlow, PyTorch, OpenCV, and Gazebo. Safety testing follows standards influenced by bodies such as ISO 10218 and ISO/TS 15066, and validation labs collaborate with certification organizations like TÜV Rheinland.

Collaborations and Partnerships

NHR@FAU maintains strategic partnerships with industrial leaders, academic consortia, and clinical centers. Notable collaborators include KUKA, Siemens Healthineers, Bosch, BMW Group, Philips, and startup ecosystems connected to EIT Digital and High-Tech Gründerfonds. Academic network partners encompass TU Delft, ETH Zurich, University of Cambridge, McGill University, University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, and KAIST. Clinical collaborations link the center to hospitals and clinics such as Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Hospital for Special Surgery, and specialty centers that engage with regulatory frameworks like European Medicines Agency procedures in translational trials.

Education and Training

Educational offerings include MSc and PhD supervision, vocational workshops, professional short courses, and public outreach. Training programs draw on curricular models from Erasmus Mundus programs, international summer schools akin to CERN Summer Student Programme, and industry internships coordinated with entities like Daimler AG and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Students and trainees work on interdisciplinary theses that reference canonical works from scholars and laboratories at Stanford, MIT Media Lab, Caltech, and Georgia Institute of Technology. Outreach activities engage with science communication partners such as Deutsches Museum, Science Museum (London), TEDx, and regional educational initiatives sponsored by Bavarian State Ministry.

Category:Research institutes in Germany