Robotics is a fascinating, diverse, and challenging field of research. It combines a wide spectrum of aspects including mechanics, electronics, control theory, and signal processing at its core. I came into contact with this field quite early during my studies as an undergraduate assistant at the Institute of Robotic Research at the University of Dortmund. Later I participated in a year-long robotics project in which we programmed robotic dogs to compete in the international RoboCup competition [1,2,3]. I finished my studies with a diploma thesis in the field of computer vision [4,5,6,7] and moved to Bremen to work as a researcher at the Robotics Innovation Center of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). My main focus there was in the field of deep sea underwater robotics. In particular, the C-Manipulator project (funded by the the German Ministry of Economics (BMWI), grant number 03SX231) determined my main line of research [8,9,10,11,12,13]. In addition, I participated in multiple internal projects including the design and implementation of a small-scale autonomous underwater vehicle [14,15], the first steps towards an underwater laser scanning system [16], and a vision-based station-keeping algorithm for an industrial, small-scale ROV [17]. Apart from these underwater specific topics I had the great pleasure of having a continuous and close exchange with colleagues from neighboring groups working on research topics in the fields of industrial robotics, space robotics, or brain-reading interfaces.

In my opinion, the most important aspect of robotic research is its humbling nature. A robotic system is exposed to the real world and all of its complexity and demanding physical constraints. A design or a piece of code might appear brilliant and perfect in theory. Yet, when it is implemented in a physical system and comes into contact with the real world, it is more often than not that one learns a lesson or two about how well our imagination was aligned with reality.

References

 1  J. Ziegler, I. Dahm, M. Hülsbusch, and J. Kerdels,
Virtual Robot - Adaptive Ressource Management in Robot Teams,
In: Technical Report 0204. presented at International RoboCup Worldchampion, Lissboa, July 2004. University of Dortmund, 2004,
[pdf|bibtex]

 2  Ingo Dahm, Matthias Hebbel, Walter Nistico, Christoph Richter, Dr. Jens Ziegler, Damien Deom, Jörn Hamerla, Mathias Hülsbusch, Jochen Kerdels, Thomas Kindler, Hyung-Won Koh, Tim Lohmann, Manuel Neubach, Claudius Rink, Andreas Rossbacher, Frank Roßdeutscher, Bernd Schmidt, Carsten Schumann, and Pascal Serwe,
Virtual Robot: Automatic Analysis of Situations and Management of Resources in a Team of Soccer Robots,
In: Tech. rep. PG 442 Final Report. University of Dortmund, 2004,
[pdf|bibtex]

 3  I. Dahm, M. Hebbel, M. Hülsbusch, J. Kerdels, W. Nistico, C. Schumann, and M. Wachter,
Decentral control of a robot-swarm,
In: Autonomous Decentralized Systems, 2005. ISADS 2005. Proceedings, pp. 347–351, 2005,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 4  Jochen Kerdels,
Dynamisches Lernen von Nachbarschaften zwischen Merkmalsgruppen zum Zwecke der Objekterkennung,
In: diploma thesis, University of Dortmund, 2006,
[pdf|bibtex]

 5  Jochen Kerdels and Gabriele Peters,
A Topology-Independent Similarity Measure for High-Dimensional Feature Spaces,
In: Artificial Neural Networks. 17th International Conference (ICANN 2007). Vol. 4669. LNCS Part 2. Porto, Portugal: Springer, pp. 331–340, 2007,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 6  Gabriele Peters and Jochen Kerdels,
Image Segmentation Based on Height Maps,
In: Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns. Vol. 4673. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 612–619, 2007,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 7  Jochen Kerdels and Gabriele Peters,
Höhenbildbasierte Segmentierung,
In: Springer–Verlag, 2007,
[pdf|bibtex] "Informatik Spektrum" cover

 8  Dirk Spenneberg, Jan Albiez, Frank Kirchner, Jochen Kerdels, and Sascha Fechner,
C-Manipulator: An Autonomous Dual Manipulator Project for Underwater Inspection and Maintenance,
In: Proceedings of OMAE 2007. ASME 2007 International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. San Diego, USA, 2007,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 9  Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
Sensorless Computer Control of an Underwater DC Manipulator,
In: Proceedings of OCEANS ’08 (MTS) / IEEE KOBE-TECHNO-OCEAN ’08. IEEE, 2008,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 10  Marc Hildebrandt, Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
Robust Vision-Based Semi-Autonomous Underwater Manipulation,
In: The 10th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems. IOS Press, pp. 308–315, 2008,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 11  Jan Albiez, Marc Hildebrandt, Jochen Kerdels, and Frank Kirchner,
Automatic Workspace Analysis and Vehicle Adaptation for Hydraulic Underwater Manipulators,
In: OCEANS MTS/IEEE Conference (OCEANS-09). o.A., 2009,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 12  Marc Hildebrandt, Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
A Multi-Layered Controller Approach for High Precision End-Effector Control of Hydraulic Underwater Manipulator Systems,
In: OCEANS MTS/IEEE Conference (OCEANS-09). o.A., 2009,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 13  Marc Hildebrandt, Leif Christensen, Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
Realtime motion compensation for ROV-based teleoperated underwater manipulators,
In: OCEANS 2009 - EUROPE, 2009,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 14  Sascha Fechner, Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
Design of a μAUV,
In: Proceedings of the 4th International AMiRE Symposium (AMiRE-2007). Buenos Aires, Argentinien: Heinz Nixdorf Institut Universiät Paderborn, pp. 99–106, 2007,
[pdf|bibtex] best paper award

 15  Jan Albiez, Jochen Kerdels, Sascha Fechner, and Frank Kirchner,
Sensor Processing and Behaviour Control of a Small AUV,
In: Autonome Mobile Systeme AMS 2007- 20. Fachgespräch Kaiserslautern. Robotics Research Lab of the University of Kaiserslautern. Kaiserslautern, Germany: Springer, pp. 327–333, 2007,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 16  Marc Hildebrandt, Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
A practical underwater 3D-Laserscanner,
In: Proceedings of the MTS/IEEE Conference on Oceans, Poles and Climate. MTS/ IEEE Oceans. IEEE, 2008,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]

 17  Jochen Kerdels, Jan Albiez, and Frank Kirchner,
A Robust Vision Based Hover Control for ROV,
In: Proceedings of OCEANS ’08 (MTS) / IEEE KOBE-TECHNO-OCEAN ’08. IEEE, 2008,
[pdf|doi|bibtex]