About Markus Knauer - Robotics & AI Researcher
Hi, I am Markus, a Robot-AI researcher, currently employed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Right now doing my PhD with the School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich (TUM), where I also serve as a Teaching Assistant for “Machine Learning in Robotics”.
My research develops data-efficient methods for teaching robots manipulation skills through progressively richer forms of interaction — from physical demonstrations, to natural language commands, to autonomous skill management using vision-language models. I build on probabilistic movement primitives and combine them with foundation models, achieving 90–100% success rates from just 2–5 demonstrations per skill — all running locally without cloud dependencies.
From 2023 to 2025, I served as the elected PhD Speaker for the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, representing all ~90 PhD students at the institute.
Based in Munich, Germany.
If you want to reach out, you can find me here:
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