Prof. Dr. Sven Behnke holds since 2008 the chair for Autonomous Intelligent Systems at the University of Bonn and heads the Computer Science Institute VI – Intelligent Systems and Robotics. He graduated in 1997 from Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (Dipl.-Inform.) and received his doctorate in computer science (Dr. rer. nat.) from Freie Universität Berlin in 2002. In his dissertation "Hierarchical Neural Networks for Image Interpretation" he extended forward deep learning models to recurrent models for visual perception. In 2003 he did postdoctoral research on robust speech recognition at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, CA. In 2004-2008 Professor Behnke led the Emmy Noether Junior Research Group "Humanoid Robots" at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. His research interests include cognitive robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. Prof. Behnke received several Best Paper Awards, three Amazon Research Awards (2018-20), a Google Faculty Research Award (2019), and the Ralf-Dahrendorf- Prize of BMBF for the European Research Area (2019). His team NimbRo has won numerous robot competitions (RoboCup Humanoid Soccer, RoboCup@Home, MBZIRC, ANA Avatar XPRIZE).

Professor Cheng researches the fundamental understanding and construction of cognitive systems. He has made pioneering contributions in Humanoid Robotics, Neuroengineering, Artificial Intelligence for the past 20 years.

Professor Cheng studied information sciences at Wollongong University (Australia) and was awarded a doctorate in systems engineering in 2001 at the department of systems engineering of the Australian National University. He founded the department of humanoid robotics and computational neuroscience at the Institute for Advanced Telecommunications Research in Kyoto (Japan), where he was Department Head from 2003 to 2008. In addition, from 2007 to 2008 he was a project manager at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency, where he was responsible for the Computational Brain project (2004-2008). Since 2010, Professor Cheng has been conducting research and teaching at TUM as full professor of cognitive systems. He is coordinator of the Center of Competence Neuro-Engineering in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and speaker of the newly established Elite Master of Science program in Neuroengineering (MSNE) of the Elite Network of Bavaria.

Talk Title: Big Hero Resilience: Enabling Metacognitive Failure Comprehension in Robots

Prof. Daniel Leidner began his career at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with his Diploma and Master's thesis in 2009-2010. He joined the Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics as a research scientist in 2011. By 2016, he became the coordinator of the Rollin' Justin humanoid robot team. Dr. Leidner later led the Semantic Planning group and the Fault-Tolerant Autonomy Architectures group. He earned his doctorate in AI and Robotics from the University of Bremen in 2017, graduating summa cum laude, and received the Georges Giralt PhD Award for the best doctoral thesis in robotics in Europe, as well as the Helmholtz Award for Doctoral Students. In 2019, he was named an Innovator Under 35 by Technology Review Germany for his work in AI and robotics. From October 2023 to July 2024, he served as a robotics consultant to the German government, shaping national AI-based robotics strategy. Since October 2024, he holds a collaboration professorship in Cognitive Robotics Manipulation at the University of Bremen, which also includes leading the Department of Autonomy and Teleoperation at DLR.

Luigi Penco is a roboticist at IHMC and focuses on autonomy, user interfaces and teleoperation of humanoid robots. He has been working as a lead developer of autonomous behaviors and human-machine interfaces in several high-profile projects supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Lab (ARL), and NASA, all aimed at advancing humanoid robotic capabilities.

Dr. Penco serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) for NASA’s Valkyrie project, which leverages IHMC software to enhance the development of the Valkyrie robot and to enable NASA to independently lead and oversee research involving the robot, with support from IHMC. Additionally, he is a Co-PI on the Squadbot project funded by ONR, which focuses on developing a robotic platform and autonomy algorithms for building exploration. He is also Co-PI on the explosive breaching project supported by ARL, which aims to enhance the safety of dismounted infantry operations by using robots to breach doors.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Roma Tre University in 2015 and a master’s in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics from La Sapienza University of Rome in 2018. In 2022 he received a PhD in Computer Science from Université de Lorraine, while conducting his doctoral studies at Inria Nancy Grand-Est.

Talk Title: Interactive Frameworks for Robot Skill Acquisition: Teleoperation and Behavior Authoring

Abstract: This talk presents interactive frameworks designed to empower robots in acquiring complex skills, with a focus on teleoperation and behavior authoring. As robots are increasingly deployed in unstructured and dynamic environments, efficiently teaching and refining skills becomes essential. Teleoperation offers an intuitive, hands-on method for demonstrating intricate tasks, allowing robots to directly learn from human expertise. However, challenges persist, such as synchronizing human and robot motion, managing impacts during interaction, and effectively utilizing the robot’s whole body for force generation.

Moving beyond teleoperation, behavior authoring provides operators with tools to define structured, reusable skill sets by decomposing behaviors into low-level action primitives. Using frameworks like behavior trees, this approach builds robust, modular behaviors that enhance adaptability and reusability. I will discuss the integration of these methods, emphasizing how coactive design principles, user interfaces, and real-time feedback mechanisms facilitate precise and efficient behavior authoring.

We will highlight recent advancements our team has made with these frameworks, demonstrating how they can be leveraged to create more adaptable, effective, and responsive robotic systems for urban exploration.

Daniele received the bachelor and master degrees in Control Engineering with highest honors from ”Sapienza”, University of Rome, in 2007 and 2009, respectively. In 2013, he earned the PhD title with a thesis prepared at INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France, with the supervision of Tarek Hamel, Salvatore Monaco, and Claude Samson. From 2013 to 2017, he has been a postdoc at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) working within the EU project CoDyCo focusing on the balancing problem of the iCub humanoid robot. From August 2017 to August 2021, he has been the head of the Dynamic Interaction Control lab, a group of about 20 members focusing on the iCub locomotion walking problem. In this period, Daniele also laid the basis for the "Aerial Humanoid Robotics", a new branch of Robotics whose main aim is to achieve flying humanoid robots. Daniele has also been the scientific PI of the H2020 European Project AnDy, and now is: task leader of the H2020 European Project SoftManBot, coordinator of the joint laboratory between IIT and Honda JP, principal investigator (PI) in the Camozzi-IIT and Danieli Automation-IIT joint labs. Lastly, Daniele is the coordinator of the ergoCub project, a 5 million, three year joint project between INAIL and IIT. Since September 2021, Daniele is the PI leading the Artificial and Mechanical Intelligence research line at IIT, a team composed of about forty members that combines AI and Mechanics to devise the next generation of the iCub humanoid robot.

Concerning awards and recognitions, in 2009 Daniele received the ”Excellence Path Award” from Sapienza for his master studies. In 2019, he was awarded as Innovator of the year Under 35 Europe from the MIT Technology Review magazine for conceiving the iRonCub, the first jet-powered flying humanoid robot. Since 2020, Daniele is a visiting lecturer at University of Manchester. In July 2020, Daniele was selected to represent Italy at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI, conceived by Canada and France during their G7 presidencies) for the working group on COVID-19 response. In 2022, Daniele was selected as reviewer of EU projects. Also, in 2022, Daniele was the leader of the iCub team during the ANA Avatar XPRIZE, a four-year 10M$ international competition for making robotic avatars. Starting from 100 initial teams, the iCub team scored 2nd after semifinal, and 14th after finals because of a system failure during day-1 testing; the iCub team scored 1st in the specific category of walking humanoids.

• Received degree of B.E, M.E and Dr. Eng. from Dept. of Precision Machinery Engineering, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, in 1990, 1993, and 1996 respectively.
• Meanwhile, joined the Department of Microtechnique at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL) (1990-1991).
• Joined former Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL) on April 1996
• From 2001- :Senior Research Scientist at Distributed System Design Research Group, Intellignent Systems Institute, AIST
• Feb 2004 Automous Behavior Control Resaerch Group, Intellignent Systems Institute, AIST
• Until July 2009: AIST/IS-CNRS/STIC Joint Japanese-French Robotics Laboratory (JRL) Co-Director (LRV Paris, LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France)
• Dec 2008: CNRS-AIST JRL (Joint Robotics Laboratory), UMI3218/CRT
• Apr 2009: Co-Director, CNRS-AIST JRL (Joint Robotics Laboratory), UMI3218/CRT