My research focuses on enabling robots to understand and competently execute complex manipulation tasks. I am particularly interested in cognitive robotics, neurosymbolic AI, AI safety, and human-AI interaction. Through interdisciplinary approaches that bridge artificial intelligence and robotics, I work to develop embodied AI systems that can safely and effectively operate alongside humans in real-world environments.

At AICOR, I operationalize the institute's research strategy, coordinate interdisciplinary teams, and support project acquisition and development. I am passionate about building embodied AI systems that people can understand, trust, and safely work with.

Research Interests

• Safe embodied AI
• Interpretable AI
• Open science
• Open source in robotics and AI
• Mobile manipulation
• Multimodal robot learning and control

• TWINSPACE - Digital Twin-based Automated Fiber Placement for Rivet-Free Manufacturing of Aerospace Components (MATENA, 2026-2028, Co-PI)
• DigiRob - Digital Twins for Household Autonomous Robots (DAAD, 2025-2026, PI)

• RESI-TSN - Resilient, Intelligent Time-Sensitive Networks (BMBF, 2024-2026, Co-PI at ArtiMinds Robotics until 2025)
• AutoKOOP - Automated Workflow for the Patient-Specific Carbon-Reinforced Orthopedic Products (BMBF, 2024-2026, Co-PI at ArtiMinds Robotics until 2025)
• ConfidentAM - Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Low-Density Thermoplastic Additive Manufacturing (BMBF, 2023-2026, Co-PI at ArtiMinds Robotics until 2025)
• VADER - Networked Digital Assistant for the Data-Driven Engineering of Robot Workcells (BMWK, 2023-2025, Co-PI, Collaborator)
• Next2OEM - A Digital and Automated Value Chain for Wiring Harness Manufacturing (BMWK, 2023-2025, Co-PI, Collaborator)
• EASY - Efficient Analysis and Control in a Dynamic Edge-Cloud-Continuum for Industrial Production (BMWK, 2023-2025, Co-PI, Collaborator)
• GANResilRob - Generative Adversarial Networks and Semantics for Resilient, Flexible Robotic Production (BMWK, 2022-2025, Co-PI, Collaborator)
• KARL - Competency Center Artificial Intelligence for Working and Living in the Karlsruhe Region (BMBF, 2021-2025, Co-PI, Collaborator)
• Koala-Grasp - Cognitively Assisted Laparoscopy: A Learning Robotic Assistance System for Surgical Grasping and Holding Tasks (BMBF, 2021-2024, Collaborator)
• RoboGrind - Hybrid AI for Flexible Robotic Surface Treatment (InvestBW, 2021-2023, Collaborator)
• HoLLiECares - A Multifunctional Service Robot to Support Care Professionals in the Hospital (BMBF, 2020-2023, Collaborator)
• KIRK - AI-based Robot Calibration (BMBF, 2020-2022, Collaborator)
• ILIAS - Imitation Learning from Human Demonstrations in Virtual Reality for Physical Human-Robot Interaction in Assistance Tasks (BMBF, 2019-2022, Collaborator)
• ProBot - Proactive Diagnosis and Conception of Collaborative Robot Deployment in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BMBF, 2019-2022, Collaborator)
• RoPHa - Robust Perception Skills for Robotic Household Assistance in the Context of Elderly Care (BMBF, 2017-2020, Collaborator)
• MonRob - Frameworks and Technologies for the Monitoring, Analysis and Online Adaption of Industrial Robotic Production Processes (ZIM, 2017-2018, Collaborator)

2025

• Alt, B.: Neurosymbolic Robot Programming: A Framework for AI-Enabled Programming of Robot Manipulation Tasks. Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany. DOI:10.26092/elib/3727

2025

• Schüßler, A., Kunz, C., Younis, R., Alt, B., Paik, J., Wagner, M., Mathis-Ullrich, F.: Semi-Autonomous Robotic Assistance for Gallbladder Retraction in Surgery. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, pp. 1–8. DOI:10.1109/LRA.2025.3577430

2024

• Schultheis, A., Alt, B., Bast, S., Guldner, A., Jilg, D., Katic, D., Mundorf, J., Schlagenhauf, T., Weber, S., Bergmann, R., Bergweiler, S., Creutz, L., Dartmann, G., Malburg, L., Naumann, S., Rezapour, M., Ruskowski, M.: EASY: Energy-Efficient Analysis and Control Processes in the Dynamic Edge-Cloud Continuum for Industrial Manufacturing. KI - Künstliche Intelligenz. DOI:10.1007/s13218-024-00868-3

2022

• Alt, B., Jäkel, R., Katic, D.: Method and System for Determining Optimized Program Parameters for a Robot Program. Patent WO2022022784A1. Assignee: ArtiMinds Robotics GmbH, Karlsruhe.

2025

• Alt, B., Kienle, C., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Beetz, M.: Shadow Program Inversion with Differentiable Planning: A Framework for Unified Robot Program Parameter and Trajectory Optimization. IEEE ICRA 2025, Atlanta, USA. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2409.08678
• Kienle, C., Alt, B., Schneider, F., Pertlwieser, T., Jäkel, R., Rayyes, R.: AI-based Framework for Robust Model-Based Connector Mating in Robotic Wire Harness Installation. IEEE CASE 2025, Los Angeles. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2503.09409
• Kienle, C., Alt, B., Katic, D., Jäkel, R.: QueryCAD: Grounded Question Answering for CAD Models. IEEE ICRA 2025, Atlanta, USA. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2409.08704

2024

• Alt, B., Zahn, J., Kienle, C., Dvorak, J., May, M., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Kopp, T., Beetz, M., Lanza, G.: Human-AI Interaction in Industrial Robotics: Design and Empirical Evaluation of a User Interface for Explainable AI-Based Robot Program Optimization. Procedia CIRP 130, pp. 591–596. DOI:10.1016/j.procir.2024.10.134
• Alt, B., Dvorak, J., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Beetz, M., Lanza, G.: BANSAI: Towards Bridging the AI Adoption Gap in Industrial Robotics with Neurosymbolic Programming. Procedia CIRP 130, pp. 532–537. DOI:10.1016/j.procir.2024.10.125
• Alt, B., Stöckl, F., Müller, S., Braun, C., Raible, J., Alhasan, S., Rettig, O., Ringle, L., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Beetz, M., Strand, M., Huber, M.F.: RoboGrind: Intuitive and Interactive Surface Treatment with Industrial Robots. IEEE ICRA 2024, Yokohama, Japan. DOI:10.1109/ICRA57147.2024.10611143
• Alt, B., Keßner, U., Taranovic, A., Katic, D., Hermann, A., Jäkel, R., Neumann, G.: Domain-Specific Fine-Tuning of Large Language Models for Interactive Robot Programming. European Robotics Forum 2024, Rimini, Italy. DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-76424-0_49
• Kienle, C., Alt, B., Celik, O., Becker, P., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Neumann, G.: MuTT: A Multimodal Trajectory Transformer for Robot Skills. IEEE/RSJ IROS 2024, Abu Dhabi, UAE. DOI:10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10802198

2023

• Alt, B., Nguyen, M.D., Hermann, A., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Dillmann, R., Sax, E.: EfficientPPS: Part-aware Panoptic Segmentation of Transparent Objects for Robotic Manipulation. ISR Europe 2023, Stuttgart, Germany.
• Alt, B., Kenfack, F.K., Haidu, A., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Beetz, M.: Knowledge-Driven Robot Program Synthesis from Human VR Demonstrations. KR 2023, Rhodes, Greece, pp. 34–43. DOI:10.24963/kr.2023/4
• Raible, J., Rettig, O., Alt, B., Yaman, A., Gauger, I., Biasi, L., Müller, S., Katic, D., Strand, M., Huber, M.F.: Artificial Neural Network Guided Compensation of Nonlinear Payload and Wear Effects for Industrial Robots. IEEE CASE 2023, Auckland, New Zealand. DOI:10.1109/CASE56687.2023.10260559
• Stöckl, F., Strand, M., Müller, S., Huber, M., Raible, J., Braun, C., Katic, D., Alt, B., Merkt, H.: Autonomous Surface Grinding of Wind Turbine Blades. IAS 18, Cham: Springer, pp. 451–457. DOI:10.1007/978-3-031-44981-9_38

2022

• Alt, B., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Beetz, M.: Heuristic-Free Optimization of Force-Controlled Robot Search Strategies in Stochastic Environments. IEEE/RSJ IROS 2022, Kyoto, Japan, pp. 8887–8893. DOI:10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9982093
• Alt, B., Kunz, C., Katic, D., Younis, R., Jäkel, R., Müller-Stich, B.P., Wagner, M., Mathis-Ullrich, F.: LapSeg3D: Weakly Supervised Semantic Segmentation of Point Clouds Representing Laparoscopic Scenes. IEEE/RSJ IROS 2022, Kyoto, Japan, pp. 5265–5270. DOI:10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981178

2021

• Alt, B., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Bozcuoglu, A.K., Beetz, M.: Robot Program Parameter Inference via Differentiable Shadow Program Inversion. IEEE ICRA 2021, Xi’an, China, pp. 4672–4678. DOI:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561206
• Dittus, S., Alt, B., Hermann, A., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Fleischer, J.: Localization and Tracking of User-Defined Points on Deformable Objects for Robotic Manipulation. IEEE ICRA Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects, Xi’an, China. arXiv:2105.09067

2020

• Alt, B., Aumann, F., Gienger, L., Jordan, F., Katic, D., Jäkel, R., Graf, B.: Modulare, Datengetriebene Roboterprogrammierung für die Lösung Komplexer Handhabungsaufgaben in Alltagsumgebungen. AAL-Kongress 2020, Berlin, Germany, pp. 17–22.
• Graf, B., Jordan, F., Blume, G., Martin, R., Abdel-Keream, M., Mania, P., Gronbach, F., Emmerich, C., Schaller, R., Katic, D., Alt, B.: RoPHa – Robuste Wahrnehmungsfähigkeiten für Roboter zur Unterstützung Älterer Nutzer im Häuslichen Umfeld. In: Autonome Roboter für Assistenzfunktionen, Dortmund: BAuA, pp. 118–133.

2025

• Alt, B., Picklum, M., Arion, S., Kenfack, F.K., Beetz, M.: Open, Reproducible and Trustworthy Robot-Based Experiments with Virtual Labs and Digital-Twin-Based Execution Tracing. arXiv:2508.11406. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2508.11406
• Kienle, C., Alt, B., Arenz, O., Peters, J.: LODGE: Joint Hierarchical Task Planning and Learning of Domain Models with Grounded Execution. arXiv:2505.13497. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2505.13497
• Melnik, A., Alt, B., Nguyen, G., Wilkowski, A., Stefańczyk, M., Wu, Q., Harms, S., Rhodin, H., Savva, M., Beetz, M.: Digital Twin Generation from Visual Data: A Survey. arXiv:2504.13159. DOI:10.48550/arXiv.2504.13159