About DLR – Agency and F&E Description
As a centre for research into aeronautics, space, energy, transport, digitalisation and security, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) makes important contributions in this respect. By interlinking research and innovation processes, DLR fulfils the socio-political task of using scientific findings to safeguard, in a sustainable way, the innovative excellence and competitiveness of industry for the benefit of society.
At DLR, over 10,000 employees assess the potential applications of their research from the very start, ensuring that the needs of industry are incorporated into research projects and research infrastructures from the planning stage. DLR identifies future topics early on, analysing current and future markets and nurturing ties with industry. The 1001 different Institutes are distribute over 30 different sites in Germany, where the Institute for Robotic and Mechatronik is a 280 Person Institute, located at the biggest DLR Research site in Oberpfaffenhofen, near by Munich.
The German Space Agency
The German Space Agency in Bonn is part of DLR and serves as the Federal Government’s central point of contact for all space-related issues. In this capacity, it develops German Space Programme and coordinates national activities at both European and international levels. The agency advises the Federal Government and contributes to the strategic approaches for space policy.
Through its missions and projects, the German Space Agency at DLR strengthens Germany’s scientific excellence and expands the technological expertise that supports the country competitiveness. A key element of its industrial policy mandate is the commercialization of space tech, SME innovation, and technology transfer.
Space missions coordinated by the German Space Agency play an important role in addressing global and societal challenges. This includes monitoring climate change, advancing digitalization and communication technologies, as well as bolstering national security. The Agency is committed to making its findings accessible to the public, raising awareness of how space impacts our daily life. Furthermore, it seeks to inspire the next generation by sparking enthusiasm for STEM subjects in general and space in particular.
The German Space Agency at DLR is honoured to organize and host the joint i-SAIRAS and iSpaRo Symposium in Germany after many years, bringing together the international community in space robotics and AI.
Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics
The Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics develops a wide array of robots to enable humans to interact more safely and efficiently with their surrounding environments. The robots are designed to act in surroundings inaccessible or dangerous to humans as well as to support humans in everyday life and work.
Our robots mimic and extend upon the manipulation and locomotion capabilities of humans on a functional level. In a more general sense, they perform any tasks of locomotion and interaction with the environment with a wide range of autonomy to suit different tasks. As a key aspect for the usability of robots, we address the interfaces to humans through multimodal human-robot interaction. Through the insights gained from the development of our robot concepts, we further aim to contribute back to the basic sciences with hypotheses for explaining biological phenomena. We are interested for example in the biomechanical principles of motion as well as in understanding of perception-action loops as they function in nature.
As a member of the German Aerospace Center, we are developing highly autonomous robots towards space missions for exploring remote planets, moons and small bodies of the solar system. Robots are the only vehicles capable of reaching most of these targets in near future, due to their great distances from Earth and the hostile environments. On the other hand, for on orbit servicing, we are developing a variety of teleoperation capabilities, from full telepresence to high levels of robot autonomy in different human-robot cooperation scenarios.