I lead the Advanced Development Analytics & Control department at Festo SE & Co. KG — one of Europe's largest industrial automation companies — with full accountability for AI strategy, R&D budget governance, make-or-buy decisions, and technology roadmapping across three continents, with outputs reviewed at CEO and Supervisory Board level. My mandate spans industrial AI, embedded AI, autonomous systems, control theory, and embedded software — AI that acts through actuators, robots, and physical systems, not just screens.
I have served IAAI (Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence) — the AAAI-affiliated conference and the world's definitive venue for deployed, real-world AI — as Outreach Chair (2023 & 2026), Co-Chair (2024), and General Chair (2025). I advise the German Federal Government on AI strategy at Digital-Gipfel level and serve on Plattform Lernende Systeme, Germany's national AI policy board.
Alongside AI, my team works on advanced closed-loop control for industrial automation: energy-efficient pneumatic and electric control, sensor replacement through model-based estimation (position estimation, end-position detection), and high-precision control — including sub-millimetre (µm) positioning with standard pneumatic components, high-precision fluid handling at µl resolution, and high-speed motion systems.
My research spans reinforcement learning, physics-informed ML, multi-agent systems, and autonomous control — with 189+ citations and publications at ICRA, IROS, ETFA, ICAART, DATE, and RTAS. I worked on my PhD thesis in Software Engineering at Daimler and the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and hold a Dipl.-Math. in Scientific Computing from Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg.
2023 — Deployed
Festo Virtual Assistant
GPT-4 powered assistant deployed globally across the full Festo product portfolio, serving the worldwide sales force and customers. One of the earliest large-scale industrial LLM deployments in European manufacturing.
LLM · RAG · Global Deployment2022 — Best Paper Finalist IROS 2024
Festo × Nvidia Isaac Sim
Digital-twin simulation platform for AI-driven industrial robot development, integrating Nvidia Omniverse and Isaac Sim with Festo's robotics stack. Enables training and validation of RL policies in simulation before physical deployment.
Isaac Sim · Omniverse · Robot AI2023 — Production
GripperAI at Würth Logistics
Reinforcement learning-based robotic picking system handling 1,000,000+ SKUs — from small components to 20 kg parts — deployed at Würth's logistics centre. Autonomous gripper selection, bin picking, and carton packing with no teaching required.
RL · Computer Vision · Industrial Robotics2020 — 2023
FLAIROP
Federated learning for industrial pick-and-place robotics. International research project with KIT (Karlsruhe) and DarwinAI (Canada), developing privacy-preserving distributed AI training across multiple production sites.
Federated Learning · Multi-SiteOngoing
Rapid²
Internal AI rapid-prototyping scaffold enabling Festo's distributed engineering teams to go from concept to deployed AI prototype in days rather than months. Connected to Nvidia Omniverse/Isaac Sim and designed for replication across geographies.
Rapid Prototyping · AI Platform2019 — Built
Festo AI Centre of Excellence
Founded and built Festo's cross-functional AI CoE from zero to 25 professionals, spanning all business units. Defined the three strategic AI pillars — AI in Robotics, AI on Edge, AI Services — that still structure Festo's AI investment today.
Org Design · AI StrategyView full profile on Google Scholar →
I engage with organisations navigating industrial AI transformation at the executive level — board advisory, strategic partnerships, and speaking. Reach out via LinkedIn.