Department News
Eine Qualle steht Modell
- 06 October 2023
Test
Sie gelten nicht als Sympathieträger der Meere, doch in puncto Unter- wasserantrieb setzen sie Maßstäbe: Nicht zuletzt weil Quallen besonders effizient schwimmen, hat ein Team des Max-Planck-Instituts für Intelligente Systeme in Stuttgart einen Roboter nach dem Vorbild der Nesseltiere konstruiert. Jellyfish-Bots könnten in Zukunft helfen, besonders empfind- liche Ökosysteme wie Korallenriffe von Plastikmüll zu befreien.
3D display could soon bring touch to the digital world
- 31 July 2023
A new, shape-shifting display can sense and respond to human touch.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a soft shape display, a robot that can rapidly and precisely change its surface geometry to interact with objects and liquids, react to human touch, and display letters and numbers - all at the same time. The display demonstrates high performance applications and could appear in the future on the factory floor, in medical laboratories, or in your own home.
Fun scientific activity for children
- 05 July 2023
The kids learnt about static electricity and the power of electrostatics
Philipp Rothemund joins Die Junge Akademie
- 29 June 2023
The academy gives young researchers the opportunity to shape the dialogue at the intersection of science, art and society.
Jellyfish-like robots could one day clean up the world’s oceans
- 25 April 2023
Roboticists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a jellyfish-inspired underwater robot with which they hope one day to collect waste from the bottom of the ocean. The almost noise-free prototype can trap objects underneath its body without physical contact, thereby enabling safe interactions in delicate environments such as coral reefs. Jellyfish-Bot could become an important tool for environmental remediation.
Linda Behringer Tianlu Wang Hyeong-Joon Joo Shanyuan Song Wenqi Hu Christoph Keplinger Metin Sitti
Biodegradable artificial muscles: going green in the field of soft robotics
- 22 March 2023
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, and at University of Colorado Boulder in the US developed fully biodegradable, high-performance artificial muscles. Their research project marks another step towards green technology becoming a lasting trend in the field of soft robotics.
Ellen Rumley Alona Shagan Philipp Rothemund Zachary Yoder Benjamin Karrer Christoph Keplinger
Soft Functional Materials for the Next Generation of Robots
- 06 December 2021
In a Comment for Nature Materials entitled “Shaping the future of robotics through materials innovation” Philipp Rothemund, Postdoc in the Robotic Materials Department, and Christoph Keplinger, Director of the Robotic Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, discuss together with collaborators from Cornell University and MIT issues that currently stand in the way of a wide-spread use of functional soft materials in real-world robotic systems.
Electrohydraulic arachno-bot a fascinating lightweight
- 16 June 2021
Fast and efficient nature-inspired joints power robotic systems
Goodbye, bulky components and connectors: A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany and at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US has now found a new way to exploit the principles of spiders’ joints to create lightweight robots.
Christoph Keplinger joins MPI-IS as new Director
- 25 August 2020
With the appointment of the 36-year old Austrian, the Max Planck Society has attracted a world-renowned scientist whose background and expertise perfectly complement and extend the research at MPI-IS and within the Cyber Valley ecosystem
Dr. Keplinger’s research focuses on fundamentally challenging current limitations of materials and components used to build robots. He is regarded as a pioneer in the field of bio-inspired soft robotics and a rising star in the international robotics and materials science communities. As an MPI-IS director, he has founded the new “Robotic Materials” department. Dr. Keplinger will have a decisive influence on the future development of the institute as well as on the excellence of Cyber Valley, Europe’s largest research consortium in the field of AI.
Linda Behringer Katherine Kuchenbecker Metin Sitti Christoph Keplinger