Alois Christian Knoll

{{short description|German roboticist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Alois C. Knoll

| image = Alois C. Knoll.png

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|03|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Stuttgart, Germany

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = German

| alma_mater = University of Stuttgart
Technische Universität Berlin
Bielefeld University

| influences =

| influenced =

| field = Robotics, AI

| workplaces = Technical University of Munich

}}

Alois Christian Knoll (born 19 March 1961 in Stuttgart) is a German computer scientist and professor at the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (formerly TUM Department of Informatics) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He is head of the Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Embedded Systems.

Biography

Alois C. Knoll received his diploma in electrical engineering/communications engineering from the University of Stuttgart in 1985. In 1988, he received his doctorate (summa cum laude) from Technische Universität Berlin. From 1985 to 1993 he was a member of “Department 20” (Computer Science){{Cite web |title=Geschichte der Fakultät IV – FreitagsrundenWiki |url=https://wiki.freitagsrunde.org/Geschichte_der_Fakult%C3%A4t_IV |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=wiki.freitagsrunde.org}} at the TU Berlin and received his habilitation in computer science in 1993.

He was appointed full professor at Bielefeld University in 1993, where he was director of the Computer Engineering Group (chair) until 2001.{{cite web|url=https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(de)/technische-fakultaet/arbeitsgruppen/Technische_Informatik/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607111901/https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(de)/technische-fakultaet/arbeitsgruppen/Technische_Informatik/|archivedate=2021-06-07|title= AG Technische Informatik |language=de|website=uni-bielefeld.de}} Between 2001 and 2004, he was a group leader and a member of the steering committee of the Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous Intelligent Systems FhG-AIS.{{Cite web|url=https://www.iais.fraunhofer.de/de.html|title=Startseite - Fraunhofer IAIS|website=www.iais.fraunhofer.de}}{{Cite web |title=SafeTRANS Gespräche - Alois Knoll - SafeTRANS News |url=https://news.safetrans-de.org/ausgabe-2014-01/safetrans-gespraeche.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=news.safetrans-de.org}} There, he was also head of the research group for robots and robot kits for educational purposes. It was from this group that the “Roberta”{{Cite web |last=IAIS |first=Fraunhofer |date=2023-04-05 |title=Roberta – Lernen mit Robotern – Spielerisch programmieren lernen |url=https://www.roberta-home.de/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=Roberta |language=de}} programme was launched in 2002, originally intended to encourage more girls to pursue robotics.{{Cite web |title=Robots and Girls - A Promising Alliance |url=https://www.ercim.eu/publication/Ercim_News/enw53/muellerburg.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ercim.eu}} In this group, the forerunners of the “Robotino” robot were conceived, which was first built and launched in 2006 and has been continuously developed by Festo-Didactic ever since.{{Cite web |title=Festo Didactic InfoPortal |url=https://ip.festo-didactic.com/InfoPortal/Robotino/Overview/DE/index.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=ip.festo-didactic.com}}

Since 2001, he has been a professor at the Department of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich, which merged into the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) in October 2022.{{Cite web |title=Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Alois Christian Knoll |url=https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/air/people/prof-dr-ing-habil-alois-knoll/ |access-date=2022-06-01}}

In 2009, he co-founded fortiss, the State Research Institute of the Free State of Bavaria for Software-Intensive Systems, and was one of its three scientific directors until 2018.{{Cite web |date=2021-04-22 |title=Alois Knoll - fortiss |url=https://www.fortiss.org/veroeffentlichungen/publikationen/autor/alois-knoll |access-date=2023-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422112604/https://www.fortiss.org/veroeffentlichungen/publikationen/autor/alois-knoll |archive-date=2021-04-22 }} From 2011 to 2021, he was Program Principal Investigator at TUMCREATE{{Cite web |title=Area-interlinking Design Analysis |url=https://www.tum-create.edu.sg/research/area-interlinking-design-analysis |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.tum-create.edu.sg |language=en}} in Singapore and head of the Area Interlinking Design Analysis group. Between 2017 and 2021, he was visiting professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Between 2007 and 2009, he was a member of the EU's highest IT advisory body, the ISTAG Information Society Technologies Advisory Group,{{Cite web |title=The EU Information Society Technologies Programme Advisory Group - ISTAG |url=https://www.ercim.eu/publication/Ercim_News/enw59/wilson.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ercim.eu}}{{Cite book |last=European Commission and Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media |url=https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/d5a32715-fc67-4e83-81eb-a2f2f50019c4 |title=Information society technologies advisory group (ISTAG) : Recommendations for workprogramme 2001 and beyond |publisher=Publications Office |year=2000}} and was involved in the design of the EU flagship projects{{Cite web |title=FET Flagship Initiatives |url=https://fet11.ercim.eu/about/fet-flagships.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=fet11.ercim.eu}} within the EU FET{{Cite web |last=EU Publications Office |title=EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) |url=https://cordis.europa.eu/programme/id/H2020-EU.1.2. |access-date=2023-06-01}} – Future and Emerging Technologies programme. He is co-author of the inaugural FET Flagship Report.{{Cite book |last=European Commission. Directorate General for the Information Society and Media. |url=https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2759/23475 |title=European challenges and flagships 2020 and beyond. |date=2009 |publisher=Publications Office |location=LU |doi=10.2759/23475|isbn=9789279138799 }} From 2013 to 2023, he led the Neurorobotics sub-project of the FET Flagship Human Brain Project.

From 2019 to 2020, he was Chief Digital Officer of Siemens Mobility Intelligent Traffic Systems ITS, now Yunex GmbH.{{Cite web |title=Yunex Traffic {{!}} Global EN – Uniting what's next in traffic. |url=https://www.yunextraffic.com/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.yunextraffic.com}}

Research

His research area includes cognitive sensor-based robots, multi-sensor data fusion, autonomous systems, embedded systems development: each of these in the application areas of automotive, manufacturing, medicine and intelligent transport systems. In these fields, he has published over 1000 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has served as an editor for international scientific journals and a conference organiser, including Chief Editor of the journal Frontiers in Neurorobotics.{{Cite web |title=Frontiers in Neurorobotics |url=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurorobotics |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.frontiersin.org}}

He founded the IEEE’s “Humanoids” conference series and chaired the Humanoids2000 programme committee.{{Cite web |title=Humanoids2000 Site |url=http://www.humanoids2000.org/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.humanoids2000.org}} In 2015, he was Programme Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Robots and Intelligent Systems (IROS) in Hamburg, Germany.{{Cite web |title=IROS 2015 |url=https://iros2015.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=iros2015.informatik.uni-hamburg.de}} He also helped found the IEEE Cyborgs and Bionic Systems (CBS) conference series{{Cite web |title=CBS - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society |url=https://www.ieee-ras.org/conferences-workshops/financially-co-sponsored/cbs |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ieee-ras.org |language=en-gb}} and delivered the first keynote of the series at CBS 2017,{{Cite book |date=2017-10-17 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8255108/proceeding |location=Beijing |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/cbs40710.2017 |isbn=978-1-5386-3194-2 |access-date= |title=2017 IEEE International Conference on Cyborg and Bionic Systems (CBS) }} was General Chair of CBS 2019{{Cite web |title=2019 IEEE International Conference on Cyborg and Bionic Systems – 18-20 September 2019 |url=https://ewh.ieee.org/soc/ras/conf/financiallycosponsored/cbs/2019cbs/cbs2019.com/index.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |language=en-US}} in Munich, Germany, and is a founding member of the IEEE Technical Committee for Cyborg & Bionic Systems.{{Cite web |title=Cyborg & Bionic Systems - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society |url=https://www.ieee-ras.org/cyborg-bionic-system |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ieee-ras.org}}

Alois Knoll has supervised a large number of doctoral and postdoctoral students and guided them to their degrees. Several of his graduates and post-doctoral researchers have also become professors, either directly or via other positions, including Guang Chen,{{Cite web |title=Guang Chen - IEEE Xplore Author Profile |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/38251904000 |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=IEEE Xplore}} Manuel Giuliani,{{Cite web |title=Professor Manuel Giuliani - UWE Bristol |url=https://people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/ManuelGiuliani |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=people.uwe.ac.uk}} Florian Röhrbein{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-06-03 |title=Neurorobotik {{!}} Fakultät für Informatik {{!}} TU Chemnitz |url=https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/informatik/neurorobotik/professor.php |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.tu-chemnitz.de |language=de}} and Jianwei Zhang.{{Cite web |title=Arbeitsbereich Technische Aspekte Multimodaler Systeme |url=https://tams.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/people/zhang/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=tams.informatik.uni-hamburg.de}} An essential part of his activities in the field of teaching was the establishment of the Master's programme “Robotics, Cognition and Intelligence”{{Cite web |title=Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence - Master of Science (M.Sc.) - TUM |url=https://www.tum.de/studium/studienangebot/detail/robotics-cognition-intelligence-master-of-science-msc |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.tum.de}}{{Cite web |title=Master Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence - TUM |url=https://www.cit.tum.de/cit/studium/studiengaenge/master-robotics-cognition-intelligence/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.cit.tum.de |language=de}} in 2010. Starting in its first year with a single-digit number of students, it has become the second largest programme of the former Faculty of Computer Science at TUM.{{Cite journal |last=TUM Department of Informatics |year=2022 |title=Informatics 2021 – Facts and Figures – Studying at TUM Department of Informatics |url=https://knoll.air.in.tum.de/2FIN_TUM_Informatik_Daten_Fakten2021_engl.pdf |journal=}} Together with Klaus Kuhn,{{Cite web |title=Kuhn_Klaus A. |url=https://www.professoren.tum.de/kuhn-klaus-a |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.professoren.tum.de}} he founded the “Graduate School for Information Science in Health“ in 2008{{Cite journal |last=Technische Universität München |title=TUM "Graduate School of Information Science in Health" (GSISH) |url=https://portal.mytum.de/ccc/presse/fachveranstaltungen/090721_gsish.pdf/download |journal=}} and led it until it was transferred to the “Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering”.{{Cite web |title=MIBE: Munich Institute of Biomedical Engineering |url=https://www.bioengineering.tum.de/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.bioengineering.tum.de}}

He has been involved in a large number{{Cite web |title=Research at the Chair of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-time Systems |url=https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/en/air/research/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ce.cit.tum.de |language=en}} of national and international large-scale scientific projects, both as a partner and as a coordinator for various funding bodies (including the European Union,{{Cite web |title=Partners |url=https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/open-ethical-engaged/contributors/partners/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.humanbrainproject.eu |archive-date=2023-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605223839/https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/open-ethical-engaged/contributors/partners/ |url-status=dead }} German Research Foundation,{{Cite web |title=SFB-453: Telepräsenz |url=https://www.ce.cit.tum.de/ldv/forschung/alte-projekte/sfb-453-telepraesenz/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.ce.cit.tum.de |language=de}}{{Cite web |title=SFB 360 - Homepage |url=http://www.sfb360.uni-bielefeld.de/ |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.sfb360.uni-bielefeld.de}} NRF Singapore,{{Cite web |title=National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF) |url=https://www.nrf.gov.sg/ |access-date=2023-05-23}} Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy,{{Cite web|title=|url=https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Parlamentarische-Anfragen/2019/19-13556.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Federal Ministry of Education and Research,{{Cite web |title=Verbundprojekt: Datensicherheit im Internet der Dinge - SunRISE -, Teilvorhaben: IoT Edge Security - Dimensions |url=https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.8635805 |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=app.dimensions.ai |language=en}} Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure,{{Cite web |last= |title=BMDV - Proaktive Videobasierte Nutzung von Telekommunikationstechnologien in innovativen Autobahn-Szenarien - Providentia |url=https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Artikel/DG/AVF-projekte/providentia.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.bmvi.de |language=de}} and German Academic Exchange Service{{Cite web |title=Electric Mobility: Opportunities and Challenges--中科院计算所计算机体系结构国家重点实验室 |url=http://www.carch.ac.cn/tzgg/201906/t20190628_497258.html |access-date=2023-06-01 |website=www.carch.ac.cn}}).

Alois Knoll is a recipient of the Carl Ramsauer Award, a Fellow of the University of Tokyo{{Cite book |last=School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo |url=https://www.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/hubfs/graduate/links/fellows2021-1.pdf |title=Fellows 2021}} and an IEEE Fellow.{{Cite news |last=IEEE |title=2023 Newly Elevated Fellows |url=https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/fellows/2023-newly-elevated-fellows.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130163052/https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/fellows/2023-newly-elevated-fellows.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 30, 2022}}

Selected publications

  • {{citation|author1=Yinlong Liu|author2=Guang Chen|author3=Alois Knoll|title=Globally Optimal Vertical Direction Estimation in Atlanta World|date=2020|journal=IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence|volume=44|issue=4 |pages=1949–1962 |doi=10.1109/TPAMI.2020.3027047|pmid=32986545|arxiv=1904.12717|s2cid=215786098}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alois Knoll|author2=Christian Buckl|author3=Karl-Josef Kuhn|author4=Gernot Spiegelberg|title=The RACE Project: an Informatics-Driven Greenfield Approach to Future E/E-Architectures for Cars|date=2019|journal=Automotive Systems and Software Engineering|pages=171–195}}
  • {{citation|author1=Zhenshan Bing|author2=Claus Meschede|author3=Florian Röhrbein|author4=Kai Huang|author5=Alois Knoll|title=A Survey of Robotics Control Based on Learning-Inspired Spiking Neural Networks|date=2018|journal=Frontiers in Neurorobotics |volume=12|pages=1–22}}
  • {{citation|author1=Guang Chen|author2=Zhenshan Bing|author3=Florian Röhrbein|author4=Jörg Conradt|author5=Kai Huang|author6=Long Cheng|author7=Zhuangyi Jiang|author8=Alois Knoll|title=Toward Brain-inspired Learning with the Neuromorphic Snake-like Robot and the Neurorobotic Platform|date=2019|journal=IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems|pages=1–12}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alois Knoll|author2=Marc-Oliver Gewaltig|chapter=Neurorobotics: a strategic pillar of the human brain project |chapter-url=https://view.imirus.com/361/document/12417/page/26 |date=2016 |title=Brain-Inspired Intelligent Robotics: The Intersection of Robotics and Neuroscience |pages=25–34 |publisher=Science/AAAS }}
  • {{citation|author1=Caixia Cai|author2=Nikhil Somani|author3=Alois Knoll|title=Orthogonal Image Features for Visual Servoing of a 6-DOF Manipulator with Uncalibrated Stereo Cameras|date=2016|journal=IEEE Transactions on Robotics |volume=32|issue=2|pages=452–461|doi=10.1109/TRO.2016.2535443|s2cid=11552476|url=http://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1303897/document.pdf}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alexey Natekin|author2=Alois Knoll|title=Gradient Boosting Machines, A Tutorial|date=2013|journal=Frontiers in Neurorobotics |volume=7 |pages=1–21}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alois Knoll|author2=Hermann Mayer|author3=Christoph Staub|author4=Robert Bauernschmitt|title=Selective automation and skill transfer in medical robotics: a demonstration on surgical knot tying|date=2012|journal=International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery |volume=8|issue=4|pages=384–397|doi=10.1002/rcs.1419|pmid=22605676|s2cid=11194708|url=http://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1285805/document.pdf}}
  • {{citation|author1=Markus Huber|author2=Alois Knoll|author3=Thomas Brandt|author4=Stefan Glasauer|title=Handing Over a Cube: Spatial Features of Physical Joint-Action|date=2009|journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences|pages=380–382}}
  • {{citation|author1=Giorgio Panin|author2=Alois Knoll|title=Mutual Information-Based 3D Object Tracking|date=2008|journal=International Journal of Computer Vision |volume=78|issue=1|pages=107–118|doi=10.1007/s11263-007-0083-7|s2cid=11975483}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alois Knoll|author2=Torsten Scherer|author3=Iris Poggendorf|author4=Dirk Lütkemeyer|author5=Jürgen Lehmann|title=Flexible Automation of Cell Culture and Tissue Engineering Tasks|date=2004|journal=Biotechnology Progress|volume=20|issue=6|pages=1825–1835|doi=10.1021/bp049759v|pmid=15575718|s2cid=11620985}}
  • {{citation|author1=Jianwei Zhang|author2=Alois Knoll|title=A two-arm situated artificial communicator for human-robot cooperative assembly|date=2003|journal=IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics |volume=50|issue=4|pages=651–658|doi=10.1109/TIE.2003.814767|url=http://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1290314/document.pdf}}
  • {{citation|author=Alois Knoll|title=Distributed contract networks of sensor agents with adaptive reconfiguration – modelling, simulation, implementation|date=2001|journal=Journal of the Franklin Institute |volume=338|pages=669–705|doi=10.1016/S0016-0032(01)00019-9|url=https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/doc/1290591/document.pdf}}
  • {{citation|author1=Alois Knoll|author2=B. Hildenbrandt|author3=J. Zhang|title=Instructing cooperating assembly robots through situated dialogues in natural language|date=1997|journal=Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation|pages=888–894}}
  • {{citation|author=Alois Knoll|title=Ultrasonic Holography Techniques for Localizing and Imaging Solid Objects|date=1991|journal=IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation|volume=7|issue=4|pages=449–467|doi=10.1109/70.86076|bibcode=1991ITRA....7..449K|url=https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/1293113 }}

References

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