FZI Live
Second ROS Meetup in Karlsruhe
Exchange on current ROS topics
On 21st May 2026, the second ROS Meetup will take place at the FZI. It offers space for exchanging current ROS topics and networking in an informal setting. As a networking event, the ROS Meetup offers a platform to present ROS-related work in presentations of around 10 to 20 minutes, exchange ideas, and network with other ROS experts and people interested in ROS.
Six exciting presentations will be given. Coffee, snacks, and networking opportunities will also be provided.
Agenda
13:00 - 13:30:
Arrival and Coffee
13:30 - 13:40:
Welcome and Introduction
13:40 - 14:00:
ROS @ FZI: From Single-robot Manipulation to Autonomous Robot Teams
Robert Wilbrandt, FZI Research Center for Information Technology
At FZI, we use ROS as the core of all robotic projects, enabling us to reuse and continuously improve specific capabilities, build on State-of-the-Art third-party components, and develop high-performance AI systems. We want to give an overview of the different areas where we currently use ROS, along with the open-source packages we maintain to support these. They include vdb_mapping for long-term, large-scale 3D mapping and navigation in extraterrestrial environments, behavior trees for the automatic LLM-based generation of assembly and disassembly programs, compliant controllers for the robot-agnostic execution of RL policies, and reusable planning components for simplified integration of stationary or mobile manipulation use-cases.
14:00 - 14:20:
Our Approach for Industrial AI Challenge
Dr. Jennifer Bühler and Dr. Denis Stogl, b»robotized group
HIL-SERL, short for Human-In-The-Loop Sample-Efficient Reinforcement Learning, is a robot learning approach that combines a small amount of demonstrations with targeted human interventions during training. In this talk, Dr. Jennifer Bühler and Dr. Denis Stogl give an introduction to how the method works, why it can learn manipulation tasks with much less task-specific data than many current approaches, and what makes it especially interesting for real-robot training. The speakers also share how they adapted the originally ROS1- and Franka-specific upstream system into a robot-agnostic ROS 2 workflow, along with a few practical lessons from simulation, teleoperation, and the training process.
14:20 - 14:40:
OInK — Optimal Inverse Kinematics with Roboplan
Sebastian Jahr, ZEISS Group
Roboplan is an emerging motion-planning library based on Pinocchio. This talk introduces the library with a special focus on one of its core IK algorithms. OInK is a QP-based differential IK solver written in C++ that enables real-time computation of joint commands to track multiple objectives while respecting constraints and safety barriers.
14:40 - 15:00:
Coffee Break and Networking
15:00 - 15:20:
Using ROS for Medical Robot Prototyping and OR Automation
Dr.-Ing. Marius Siegfarth and Javier Moviglia, Mannheimer Institut für intelligente Systeme in der Medizin (MIISM) – Medizinische Fakultät Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg
The MIISM at University Hospital Mannheim develops medical robots and other assistance systems for operating room automation. This presentation will demonstrate how we use ROS to develop robotic prototypes and integrate them with medical imaging modalities such as CT and MRI. It will also show how devices are connected in the operating room.
15:20 - 15:40:
Cartesian Impedance Controller for ROS 2
Matthias Mayr, Mayr Robotics
Many real-world manipulation tasks require compliant interaction beyond what stiff position control can provide. This talk introduces a Cartesian impedance control stack for torque-controlled manipulators. The stack is implemented with ros2_control and generalizes across platforms such as the Franka Research 3 and the KUKA iiwa.
15:40 - 16:00:
Best of Both Worlds: Bridging the Gap between ROS and Industrial CNC
Matthias Marquart, ISW -Institut für Steuerungstechnik der Werkzeugmaschinen and Fertigungseinrichtungen (Universität Stuttgart) and Benjamin Kaiser, ISG – Industrielle Steuerungstechnik GmbH
Modern manufacturing requires a fusion of industrial reliability and intelligent flexibility. This talk showcases a hybrid architecture that fuses the reliability of TwinCAT CNC with the intelligence of ROS. Motivated by use cases such as robotic timber milling, we developed an architecture in which the CNC triggers a MoveIt planner for collision-free path planning, then executes the path back on the CNC. Finally, we provide an outlook on future synergies, focusing on the native integration of the ISG-Kernel SDK into the ROS ecosystem to combine high-precision motion control with open-source flexibility.
16:00 - 16:15:
Coffee Break and Networking
16:15 - 17:00:
Lab tours and Networking
