Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart site

Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart site

The scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (formerly: Max Planck Institute for Metals Research) dedicate their efforts to the material sciences. Their interests include, among other things, how the functioning of materials determines the atomic, nanoscopic and microscopic scale of their macroscopic behaviour. To this end, one of their main fields of research is nanoscience – the scientists investigate magnetic material and fluids on the nanoscale, for example. A further focus of their research is the interface between nanotechnology and biology, such as the behaviour of cells on different surfaces. Many of the phenomena being investigated occur when a material is converted from one state into another or at the interface between two materials. Understanding what happens at such interfaces could help create materials which are more stable and invest them with targeted properties.

Contact

Heisenbergstr. 3
70569 Stuttgart
Phone: +49 711 689-0
Fax: +49 711 689-1010

PhD opportunities

This institute has an International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS):

IMPRS for Intelligent Systems

In addition, there is the possibility of individual doctoral research. Please contact the directors or research group leaders at the Institute.

Department Physical Intelligence

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Department Theory of Inhomogeneous Condensed Matter

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Department Phase Transformations, Thermodynamics and Kinetics

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Department Modern Magnetic Systems

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MAXminds Mentorship initiative to aid affected university students in their careers

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Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, with the robot "Baxter".

In order to support people in therapy or in everyday life in the future, machines will have to be capable of feeling and gently touching their human counterparts. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are currently developing the technology required for this objective and are already testing sensitive robots for initial applications.

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Geckos' crash landing abilities may inspire new techniques for robot mobility

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Periodic pattern consisting of magnons is formed at room temperature

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A chip-based technology that modulates intensive sound pressure profiles with high resolution opens up new possibilities for ultrasound therapy

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They’re not the most popular of sea creatures, but they set standards in terms of underwater propulsion. A team from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart has designed a robot based on the cnidarians, not least because jellyfish swim very efficiently. In the future, jellyfish-bots could help to remove plastic waste from particularly sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs.

Run, robot!

MaxPlanckResearch 2/2023 Materials & Technology

Walking and running without stumbling is still a challenge for two-legged robots, especially on uneven terrain. It could be easier for them in the future, however. A team led by Alexander Badri-Spröwitz, Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, has designed a walking robot inspired by running birds. In the future, such machines could be used on construction sites, in agriculture, or even in space missions.

In order to support people in therapy or in everyday life in the future, machines will have to be capable of feeling and gently touching their human counterparts. Katherine J. Kuchenbecker and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are currently developing the technology required for this objective and are already testing sensitive robots for initial applications.

Ultrasound can be used manipulate tiny particles and even to arrange them in any desired patterns by using acoustic holography. This method has been developed by Peer Fischer’s team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart. The physicists are already working on medical applications.

Some medical treatments would be more efficient if medication could be transported via a tiny robot directly to the diseased area. Peer Fischer and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart are developing microswimmers and nanoswimmers that are expected to one day make this possible.

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Sensitive fingertips for robots 

2022 Sun, Huanbo; Kuchenbecker, Katherine J.; Martius, Georg 

Computer Science Material Sciences Mathematics

Striving to improve touch sensing in robotics, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems developed a thumb-shaped sensor with a camera hidden inside and trained a deep neural network to infer its haptic contact information. The system constantly constructs a force map – where and how things are touching the flexible outer shell of the sensor – and in this way “sees” the contact deformations. This research invention significantly improves a robot finger’s haptic perception, coming ever closer to the sense of touch of human skin, though it works in a completely different way.

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Electrohydraulic arachno-bot a fascinating lightweight

2021 Nicholas Kellaris, Philipp Rothemund, Yi Zeng, Shane K. Mitchell, Garrett M. Smith, Kaushik Jayaram, Christoph Keplinger 

Computer Science Material Sciences Solid State Research

The impressive locomotion and manipulation capabilities of spiders have inspired many a roboticist to build machines mimicking these fascinating animals. A team of scientists at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and the University of Colorado Boulder has developed highly advanced joints inspired by spiders' legs and used them to build lightweight and delicate robots that raise the bar in the field of bioinspired robotics. 

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Scientists invent jellyfish-inspired swimming robot “Jellyfishbot”

2019 Ren, Ziyu; Hu, Wenqi; Dong, Xiaoguang; Sitti, Metin

Material Sciences

At the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart we develop a robot that looks and moves like a jellyfish, one of the world’s most common marine animals: the “jellyfishbot”. The untethered robot features an umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles just like its natural model. The research holds great potential when investigating the impact of environmental changes on the oceans’ ecosystems. Another vision for the jellyfishbot is to revolutionize the treatment of cancer.

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Nanorobots propel through the eye

2018 Zhiguang Wu, Jonas Troll, Hyeon-Ho Jeong, Qiang Wei, Marius Stang, Focke Ziemssen, Zegao Wang, Mingdong Dong, Sven Schnichels, Tian Qiu, Peer Fischer

Cell Biology Material Sciences Solid State Research Structural Biology

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart developed specially coated nanometer-sized robots that could be moved actively through dense tissue like the vitreous of the eye. So far, the transport of such nano-vehicles has only been demonstrated in model systems or biological fluids, but not in real tissue. Our work constitutes one step further towards nanorobots becoming minimally-invasive tools for precisely delivering medicine to where it is needed.

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Microrobots to the rescue! Miniature robots the size of around a single cell have the prospect of transforming medical therapy, as they are able to access enclosed spaces, making previously inaccessible body parts accessible, allowing for a minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment. However, it is difficult to construct a microrobot. Questions are: can the researchers create medical robots that decide themselves when to take action inside the body? How can they build such an autonomous, intelligent system at the sub-millimeter scale? A great challenge, that the scientists pursue with passion.

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