The team of the Munich robot developer Franka Emika receives the German Future Prize 2017 from Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The prize is endowed with 250,000 euros.
The Federal President's award goes to Professor Dr.-Ing. Sami Haddadin, Director of the Institute of Automatic Control at Leibniz University Hannover, Dr. Simon Haddadin, Managing Director of Franka Emika GmbH, and Sven Parusel, Chief Engineer of Franka Emika.
Professor Haddadin moves to Munich
The award winners have developed a novel concept for cost-effective, flexible, and intuitively operated robots. This allows robots to serve as helpers, for example, in assisting elderly, sick, or disabled people. The robots are also intended for use in industry. Sami Haddadin says about the award:
"This award honors our entire field of research. Robotics and machine intelligence can provide solutions to numerous problems facing our modern society, such as demographic change and labor shortages. Through our developments, we have made the emergence of robot assistants a reality for the first time. A lightweight, easy-to-program, and sensitive helper, available to everyone. That's Franka."
Professor Haddadin will move to the Technical University of Munich on April 1, 2018. The world-renowned researcher has also received offers from the elite American universities Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford, but declined these in favor of the Technical University of Munich after "intensive family consultation."
