Univ. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ulrike Thomas

Professor Ulrike Thomas studied Computer Science at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She received her Diploma in 2000 from the Technical University of Braunschweig. From 2000 to 2007 she was assistant researcher at the Institute of Robotics and Process Control at the Technical University of Braunschweig. She worked in robot programming, sensor integration for assembly, assembly sequence planning and real-time robot control systems. In 2008 she received the PhD with summa cum laude, during that time she contributed to the collaborative research centre SFB 562 "Robotic Systems for Handling and Assembly“, who’s spokesperson was Professor Wahl, her PhD supervisor. 

From 2007 until 2015 she worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics in Oberpfaffenhofen in several research projects ranging from remote sensing and image processing to robot control. In 2013 she was guest researcher at the Texas A & M University in the Group of Nancy Amato (now at University Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and combined her assembly sequence planning algorithms with motion planning.

She was part oft the core team initiating the SMErobotics project "The European Robotics Initiative for Strengthening the Competitiveness of SMEs in Manufacturing by Integrating Aspects of Cognitive Systems“, which focused on new methods for robot programming, assembly sequence planning, grasping and motion planning for cognitive robotics in manufacturing for SMEs. Moreover, she contributed to several industrial projects for object recognition, camera calibration and robot motion planning.

Since April 2015 she is full professor (W2) at Chemnitz University of Technology, where she leads the robotics and human machine interaction group. Her main research fields are tele-robotics, human-robot interaction, locomotion and perception with a focus in production and every-day services. She developed software-tools for assembly sequence planning, robot control and object recognition. With her research group she develops new intelligent systems for better humanoid robots, which can be used in manufacturing, service robotics, telemanipulation and surgery or in rescue situations. She has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. 

2017

Finalist, Best Conference Paper Award, Human-Robot Interaction with Redundant Robots Using Force-Field-Dependent Variable Impedance Control, IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors, Ottawa, Canada.

2009

Emerald Literati Network Award, Finalist, Definition and Execution of a Generic Assembly Paradigm, Highly commended für den Emerald Literati Network Award.

2009

Heinrich Büssing Preis, Automatisierte Programmierung von Robotern für Montageaufgaben, Verliehen für die Dissertation durch den Braunschweigischen Hochschulbund, TU Braunschweig.

2008

Outstanding Paper Award, Towards Automatic near Real Time Traffic Monitoring with an Airborne Wide Angle Camera System, Journal on European Transportation Research.

2008

Nominierung für den Dissertationspreis Beste Informatik Dissertation der Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI), 2009, Vorgeschlagen von der Carl-Friedrich Gauß Fakultät der Technischen Universität Braunschweig, Schloß Dagstuhl.

2003

Best Paper Award, Efficient Assembly Sequence Planning Using Stereographical Projection of C-Space Obstacles, IEEE Symposium on Assembly and Task Planning, Besancon, Frankreich.