Prof. Dr. Robert Katzschmann
Prof. Dr. Robert Katzschmann
Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering
Additional information
Research area
Soft Robotics: Developing compliant and flexible robots using soft materials and actuators to mimic the adaptability and dexterity of biological systems. This includes designing robots that safely interact with humans and navigate complex environments. Innovations include vision-controlled inkjet printing and xolographic biofabrication for precise, multi-material robotic components.
Musculoskeletal Robotics: Designing robotic systems inspired by human musculoskeletal structures, focusing on electrically-driven artificial muscles, joints, and tendons for lifelike movement and enhanced interaction capabilities.
Biohybrid Robotics: Integrating biological materials, such as living cells, with synthetic systems to create robots capable of growth, regeneration, and environmental adaptation. This research advances sustainable, intelligent, and adaptive robotic devices.
Underwater Robotics: Developing bioinspired robots for aquatic environments, such as autonomous soft robotic swimmers, to support environmental monitoring and biodiversity studies.
Dexterous Robotic Manipulation: Creating advanced robotic hands and control systems for precise, adaptive manipulation tasks. Combining musculoskeletal principles with AI and machine learning, these systems enhance control strategies and interaction capabilities.
Major Achievements
Real-World Deployed Soft Robotic Fish: Robert developed SoFi, the first autonomous soft robotic fish using a biomimetic tail to explore marine life (Science Robotics, 2018). This work, with over 1,800 citations, has been featured in NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic, and presented at TED ’22 and TEDx ’23. His lab extended this research with physics-informed deep learning (ICML ’22), low-voltage electrostatic actuators (Science Advances, 2024), and biohybrid swimmers powered by tissue-engineered muscles (RoboSoft, 2024).
Printing and Machine-Learning for Proprioceptive Hands: Robert created the first fully 3D-printed proprioceptive robotic hand (RoboSoft, 2019), demonstrating award-winning object manipulation. He advanced inkjet printing for biomimetic systems (Nature, 2023) and developed multi-fingered robotic hands powered by reinforcement and imitation learning. These innovations led to the launch of Mimic Robotics in 2024, a startup revolutionizing logistics and food processing.
Dynamic Control of Soft and Musculoskeletal Robots: Robert pioneered dynamic control algorithms for soft robotic arms, enabling precise motion with infinite degrees of freedom (RoboSoft, 2019). His proprioceptive arms perform tasks like picking, throwing, and drawing without external motion capture (Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2022). Recently, his lab introduced an electrohydraulic robotic leg with advanced actuators, achieving energy-efficient, adaptive locomotion (Nature Communications, 2024). These contributions have garnered over 900 citations and invitations to keynote talks and workshops.
Short Bio
Robert Katzschmann is an Assistant Professor of Robotics at ETH Zurich and the founder of the Soft Robotics Lab, where he develops new robotic morphologies for a future of life-like robots that seamlessly integrate with us. Robert is also the cofounder and scientific advisor of mimic robotics, which develops autonomous dexterous manipulation solutions. He holds a Diplom-Ingenieur from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), wrote his master thesis at Stanford University (2013), and earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) in 2018.
Before joining ETH, Robert engineered robotic surgery and biopsy systems at Auris Surgical Robotics (now Johnson & Johnson), created new robotic manipulation technologies as an Applied Scientist at Amazon Robotics, and served as CTO at Dexai Robotics (now Sony AI), where he led the development of autonomous kitchen robots. His research spans soft robotics, biohybrid systems, musculoskeletal robotics, and dynamic control, with work published in top journals such as Science Robotics and Nature.
Robert’s contributions have been recognized internationally, including as a IEEE RAS Senior Member, Ellis Member, and a TED Fellow. His TED Talk from 2022 on robots inspired by animal movement has been viewed by millions. He serves as an Editor for the International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) and IEEE BioRob and holds leadership roles in major conferences such as Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), ICRA, IROS and RoboSoft. Additionally, he is an Editorial Board Member of Advanced Robotics Research and npj Robotics. His work has been featured in prominent media outlets, including The New York Times, National Geographic, and BBC News.
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Orcid: orcid.org/0000-0001-7143-7259
Website: https://srl.ethz.ch
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bruYeAQAAAAJ
Education
09/13–05/18 PhD in Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Thesis Title: Building and Controlling Fluidically Actuated Soft Robots: From Open Loop to Model- based Control
Thesis Committee: Daniela Rus, Russ Tedrake, John Leonard, Peko Hosoi
04/12–11/12 Master’s Thesis, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Advisors: Dr. Torsten Kröger, Prof. Oussama Khatib
10/07–01/13 Diplom-Ingenieur in Mechanical Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.
Specialization: Mechatronics and Microsystems Technology
09/05–06/07 Abitur (A-Levels), Liselotte Gymnasium, Mannheim, Germany.
Current and selected previous positions
07/20–Present Assistant Professor of Robotics (tenure-track), D-MAVT, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Advising 17 PhDs and 2 Established Researchers as head of the Soft Robotics Laboratory
04/24–Present Co-founder and Scientific Advisor, Mimic Robotics, Zurich, Switzerland.
07/19–06/20 Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Dexai Robotics, Somerville, MA, USA.
Software and Hardware Engineering of Autonomous Kitchen Robot (Managing 10 engineers)
11/18–06/19 Senior Applied Scientist, Amazon Robotics, North Reading, MA, USA.
Developed Patented Robotic Manipulator ’Robin’, Handling Millions of Packages at Amazon
Selected Institutional responsibilities
04/22–Present Search Committees on Robotics, Robotic Materials and Power Electronics, ETH Zurich
10/21–Present Executive Board Member, ALIVE Engineering with Living Materials, ETH Zurich
01/21–Present Admissions Committee Member, M.Sc. in Robotics, Systems + Control, ETH Zurich
Teaching activities incl. supervision of students and postdocs
07/20-Present PhDs: D. Albayrak, A. Badolato, A. Balciunaite, T. Buchner, B.G. Cangan, L. Jones, A. Kazemipour, D. Liconti, M. Mekkattu, M. Michelis, E. Nava, Y. Toshimitsu, C. Yang, H. Zheng, Dr. D. Wälchli (Graduated 04/24), Senior Postdocs: Dr. M. Filippi, Dr. R. Hinchet
07/20-Present Supervised 42 Bachelor Theses, 47 Semester Projects, and 37 Master Theses.
09/23–Present Courses on Soft + Biohybrid Robotics, Real-World Robotics, Focus Projects, Distinguished Lecture Series on Robotics / Additive Manufacturing / Engineering with Living Materials.
Selected service to the scientific community
10/24–Present Editorial Board Member of Advanced Robotics Research (Wiley).
09/24–Present Editorial Board Member of npj Robotics (Springer Nature).
02/24–Present Editor for IEEE BioRob.
01/23–Present Editor for International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR).
01/22–Present Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics Automation Letters (RA-L), ICRA, IROS, and RoboSoft.
04/21-07/21 Panel Member and Reviewer, The Academy of Finland Research Grants.
02/21–05/22 Area Chair for Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS).
04/20–Present Grant Panel Member and Reviewer, US National Science Foundation (NSF).
10/15–Present Reviewer for high-impact journals including Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Materials, Science Robotics, and major robotics conferences (ICRA, IROS, RoboSoft, RSS).
Organization of conferences and workshops
02/24-09/24 BioRob24 workshop on Bio-hybrids, Heidelberg, Germany.
10/23-04/24 RoboSoft24 workshop on Bio-hybrids: When robots get alive, San Diego, USA.
10/23-04/24 RoboSoft24 workshop on 3D Printing + Musculoskeletal Robots, San Diego, USA.
06/23–01/24 JST Moonshot Workshop EU+Japan, Tokyo, Japan.
10/22–04/23 Conference Workshop Co-Chair, RoboSoft23, Singapore.
04/22 RoboSoft22 workshop on Software for Soft Robotics Research, Edinburgh, UK.
04/18-10/18 IROS 2018 workshop on Soft Robotic Modeling and Control, Madrid, Spain.
Selected invited talks and presentations
11/24 Korhammer Seminar at Princeton, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
11/24 AI Center Academic Talk Series (AICATS), ETH AI Center, Switzerland.
09/24 Robotics Seminar at CMU, Pittsburgh, USA.
07/24 Priors4Robots + Dexterous Manipulation workshop talks, RSS, Delft, Netherlands.
06/24 Keynote at ACTUATOR conference, Wiesbaden, Germany.
05/24 Keynote at Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
05/24 ICRA 2024 workshop talk on Bio-inspired Robotics, Yokohama, Japan.
11/23 Talk at Learning for Soft Robots: Hard Challenges for Soft Systems at CoRL 2023.
07/23 Bioinspired Robotics for Marine Conservation workshop talk at Living Machines Conference.
06/23 TEDx Gateway talk, Mumbai, India.
07/22 Keynote Talk at Deformation Robotics Summer School, INRIA Lille, France.
04/22 TED talk, Vancouver, Canada: “The future of machines that move like animals.”
04/22 Keynote at IEEE ICCAR, Xiamen (virtual), China.
01/20 Speaker at Gordon Research Conference on Robotics, Ventura, CA, USA.
Outreach Activities to the General Public
09/24 “Artificial muscles propel a robotic leg to walk and jump” featured in 40 news outlets.
11/23 “Printed robots with bones, ligaments, and tendons” featured in 142 news outlets.
11/23 Lectures for Children at Treffpunkt Science City and students at ETH Future Day, Zurich.
05/22 Lecture for Female High School Students, LIMES Summer Lecture, and Study Info Days.
06/19 Robot demo at Ocean Exploration Expo, US House Committee on Science, Space, and Tech.
03/18 “Soft robotic fish swims alongside real ones” featured in NYT, WSJ, BBC, NatGeo, etc.
Notable collaborations
01/21-Present Advancing biohybrid robots with Ritu Raman (MIT), Kit Parker (Harvard University), Shoji Takeuchi (University of Tokyo), and Eldad Tzahor (Weizmann Institute, Israel).
09/20-Present Materials and actuator design with Christoph Keplinger (MPI), Markus Grebenstein (DLR), and Dorina Opris (EMPA).
10/20-Present Robotics modeling and simulation with Zac Manchester (CMU), Wojciech Matusik (MIT), Stelian Coros (ETH), and Christian Duriez (INRIA).
01/21-Present Aerial drones with Marco Tognon (INRIA), Roland Siegwart (ETH) and Markus Ryll (TUM).
06/21-Present AI integrated into robotics with Andreas Krause (ETH) and Benjamin Grewe (ETH/UZH).
07/20-Present Industry research with Amazon Robotics, Festo, Novartis, and Japan Science + Tech. Agency.
Selected Project Grants
07/24–06/28: Electrohydraulic actuators | Funding Source: Industrial Partner | CHF 522,297
Developing safe and efficient actuators for untethered robotics.
04/23–03/27: Artificial muscles for lifelike robots | Funding Source: SNSF Mint | CHF 1,060,853
Advancing artificial muscles for lifelike robotic movement.
09/23–08/27: Bioxolography of skeletal muscle | Funding Source: SNSF Sinergia Consortium | CHF 830,459 (3 Mio total)
Leading a multidisciplinary project to develop xolographic fabrication techniques for skeletal muscle tissue.
09/22–08/25: Optimizing fluidic soft robots | Funding Source: ETH Research Grants | CHF 241’235
Exploring learning techniques for the co-optimization of fluidic soft robots.
05/23–12/24: Biohybrid patches for cardiac surgeries | Funding Source: USZ Innovations | CHF 115,957
Designing biohybrid patches for advanced cardiac procedures.
06/23–05/25: FastPoints2Mesh | Funding Source: Swiss Data Science Center | CHF 149,030
Co-leading efforts to develop efficient mesh reconstruction methods for robotics.
Membership
Honours
| Year | Distinction |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Best Student Paper at ROBOVIS, Rome, Italy |
| 2022 | TED Talk "The future of machines that move like animals" |
| 2022 | TED Fellowship, TED Fellow Program, TED Conferences LLC, USA/Canada |
| 2019 | Outstanding Paper Award at IEEE RoboSoft 2019, Seoul, South Korea |
| 2014 | Tony Stark Award for Bad-Ass Live Demo, MIT MECHE Research Exhibition, USA |
| 2014 | Redtenbacher-Prize for best results in Diplom-Ingenieur (Equiv. Bachelor and Master) studies, awarded by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, KIT, Germany |
| 2009 | Grashof Award for outstanding accomplishments and the best final result in the basic study of mechanical engineering, KIT, Germany |
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2025
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 151-0073-21L | ReefRanger |
| 151-0636-00L | Soft and Biohybrid Robotics |
| 151-0638-00L | MaP Distinguished Lecture Series on Engineering with Living Materials |