🤖 RBO Lab at ICRA 2026: Two Accepted Papers and Three Workshop Talks
We're going to #ICRA2026! Catch our latest research on affordance estimation and acoustic sensing, alongside three workshop talks by Oliver Brock.
Timetable of our contributions: https://t.co/42o1j0D73Y
🎧 RBO Researchers Featured in ZEIT WISSEN Podcast
Researchers from SCIoI and RBO Lab at TU Berlin discuss humanoid robots and embodied AI in the latest ZEIT WISSEN podcast. 🤖🦾
Podcast: https://t.co/TmpyF2UqWN
Article: https://t.co/cjbYpg4xju
🔬 CMU Professor Aaron Johnson Visits RBO Lab
We welcomed Aaron Johnson to the RBO Lab at TU Berlin for a talk on “Robots Making Contact with an Uncertain World.”
Aaron also joined a lab tour with members of the RBO team.
🤖 RBO Lab Research Featured in ZEIT WISSEN
The article explores how robots learn through interaction with the physical world and reports on experiments with robots equipped with large language models.
🔗 https://t.co/wOEIKtONYg
🤝 Thomas Dohmke Visits the RBO Lab and Science of Intelligence
TU Berlin alumnus and former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke @ashtom recently visited the RBO Lab and Science of Intelligence in Berlin, where we discussed the future of AI and robotics!
🎓 Xing Li Successfully Defends His PhD Thesis
His research on Environmental Constraints enables robots to achieve one-shot generalization in contact-rich tasks by separating task structure from sensory adaptation during execution.
Have fun at @FlexionRobotics!
#Robotics
🧠 New Paper by Oussama Zenkri: Humans Learn Faster When Physical Effort Increases
Does making a task physically harder help us learn? PhD student Oussama Zenkri’s new study shows that higher interaction costs lead to more strategic problem-solving. Links in the comments!
🎥 Recording Available: Hybrid AI for Safe Embodied Intelligence by Dr. Benjamin Alt
We are pleased to share the full recording of Dr. Benjamin Alt’s guest lecture on Hybrid AI for Safe Embodied Intelligence, presented at TU Berlin.
https://t.co/MxDINAzBNd
Everyone talks AI, but what is intelligence, actually?
Join me and Prof. Oliver Brock @TUBerlin, director of the Science of Intelligence excellence cluster @scioi_cluster, for a deep-dive into the science of intelligence, robotics, protein folding, and his startup side quests.
Here are my three personal highlights from this podcast:
- Oliver believes that intelligence manifests itself through behavior, and that behavior depends on a small set of principles. One of those principles, he believes, is active interconnection, where information flows between different parts of a system, guided by optimization.
- He recounts his truly inspiring life-story, including how we grew up in the 80s in West Berlin, what he did when the wall came down, how he found his way into Stanford University, and how he became the CTO of a company raising $200M in funding.
- By linking protein folding to robotics, Oliver explains how Deepmind's AlphaFold achieved a breakthrough in finding stable protein folding states, what Levinthal's paradox entails, and that necessity has driven nature to excel at protein folding.
Content
02:14 Growing Up in Berlin in the 80s
08:26 Path Towards Academia
17:17 Founding AllAdvantage
27:23 Professorship in Amherst, MA
29:15 Protein Folding and AlphaFold
37:54 Interactive Perception
44:42 Intelligence, Behavior, and Braitenberg Vehicles
47:21 Definition of Intelligence
49:02 Multiple Intelligences
53:33 Intelligence as a Process
55:15 Work Turing Test
57:19 Principles of Intelligence: Active Interconnection
01:05:59 Science of Intelligence
01:10:16 Future of Robotics
Episode Links
- Science Of Intelligence: https://t.co/QP6Me9sIRl
- Oliver Brock Homepage: https://t.co/3uzyk4hiZN
- Robotics and Biology Laboratory: https://t.co/Ck3rA1MeMh
- Wikipedia AllAdvantage: https://t.co/Qm8CoU9zJm
- The Work Turing Test: https://t.co/nTRLjikaTR
Podcast Links
Youtube: https://t.co/9x6aFlzwW8
X/Twitter: https://t.co/ewNNkyJjcO
Spotify: https://t.co/Zr9YpAWWei
LinkedIn: https://t.co/EcEBmauxoY
Support: https://t.co/aiO6MzQp9f
Personal Website: https://t.co/SJkvmUzVxi
Podcast Website: https://t.co/mjAB8eLxoW
🔊 Behind the Scenes: Acoustic Sensing Demo for Dr. Előd Páll
Former RBO Lab PhD Előd Páll (now Lead Robotics Engineer R&D @ Interactive Scape) visited for a talk and got a live demo from students on acoustic sensing: so robots can hear what they touch. Paper page in comments!
🎙️ Oliver Brock Gives Inaugural Talk at RIG Lecture Series
Prof. Oliver Brock delivered the kickoff talk for the new Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) @roboticsgermany Lecture Series.
🎓 The series is also a credit-bearing seminar for students. Links to recording in comment!
@IEEEorg 📖 Read the Science of Intelligence feature here:
https://t.co/HdhKM5xLjs
📘 Read the full interview in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine:
https://t.co/lP87jNyOu7
🔍 Vito Mengers Featured in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
Our researcher Vito Mengers appears in the “Mastering Research” series of @IEEEorg RAM, where he discusses his prize-winning work “No Plan but Everything under Control”. Link is in the comments!
#Robotics#AI
🤝 RIG Technical Committee “Manipulate Anything, Anywhere, Anytime” Meets at TU Berlin — Two RBO Hands Shared with Partners
The RIG TC met at our lab to kick off the Lab Visit series. We shared two soft hands with RIG partners!
#Robotics#Manipulation#Research
🔬 RBO Participates in Berlin’s Long Night of the Sciences
From gesture-controlled robot hands 🤝 to puzzle-solving robots 📷, RBO Lab at TU Berlin shared its robotics research with the public during #LNDW2025.
Thanks to all who joined us! #Robotics#ScienceOutreach