Keynote by Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut (Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg)

Talk by David Reger (CEO Neura Robotics)

Description

The last years have seen astonishing progress in the capabilities of generative AI techniques, particularly in the areas of language and visual understanding and image and video generation. Key to the success of these models are the use of image and text data sets of unprecedented scale along with models that are able to digest such large datasets. We are now seeing the first examples of leveraging such models to equip robots with open-world visual understanding and reasoning capabilities. Unfortunately, however, we have not achieved the RobotGPT moment; these models still struggle with reasoning about geometry and physical interactions in the real world, resulting in brittle performance on seemingly simple tasks such as manipulating objects in the open world. A crucial reason for this problem is the lack of data suitable to train powerful, general models for robot decision making and control.
In this talk, I will discuss approaches to generating large datasets for training robot manipulation capabilities, with a focus on the role simulation can play in this context. I will show some of our prior work, where we demonstrated that manipulation skills trained in simulation can be transferred successfully to the real world, including contact-rich industrial assembly tasks.

See: http://erf2025.eu/keynote-speakers/

Speakers, Panelists, etc

• Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut was born in Balingen in 1972. After graduating from the Balingen secondary school, she studied business administration at the University of Tübingen and in 2001, the business graduate earned her doctorate at the University of Würzburg.
  Dr. Hoffmeister-Kraut started her career in London at the investment bank Morgan Stanley. This was followed by a position as Analyst at Ernst & Young in London and Frankfurt. Since 1998, she has been a partner of the Bizerba SE & Co. KG, with headquarters in Balingen. She was a Member of the Supervisory Board from 2014 until her appointment as Minister in May 2016.
  
  Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut is also active in the executive committee of the German Protestant Church Congress, in the friends’ association and parents’ council of various Balingen schools as well as in the Board of Trustees of the Zollernalb Psychiatry Foundation.
  She has been a member of the Baden-Württemberg Landtag (regional parliament) since May 2016 and on 12 May 2016, Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut was appointed Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
  
  On 12 May 2021, Hoffmeister-Kraut was appointed Minister of Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
  Until May 2016, she was also member of the Balingen City Council and the Zollernalbkreis County Council.
  
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  Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut is married and has three daughters
• David Reger is the founder and CEO of NEURA Robotics, the German company that developed the first series-ready cognitive robot in record time. In recognition of his success as a founder and corporate leader, he was appointed to the German Economic Senate, the Economic Council, and the European Senate for Economy and Technology.
  
  David Reger coined the term “cognitive robotics” and is considered a pioneer in the field. By combining artificial intelligence with groundbreaking sensor and hardware design, he transforms robots into integral parts of modern daily life, addressing urgent societal challenges such as skilled labor shortages.
  
  In 2009, the technical model maker moved to Silicon Valley, where he served the community as a social worker. Returning to Europe in 2013, he built three successful high-tech companies focused on robotics.
  
  Inspired by the conviction that respect for existing technological achievements should never hinder the pursuit of the impossible, he founded NEURA Robotics GmbH in 2019, driven by the idea of creating technologies that serve humanity.
  
  In his role as visionary, technical expert, and responsible entrepreneur, David Reger actively shapes our society’s transformation toward a social robotics economy. He provides political impulses and influences the tech sector as a “down-to-earth doer.”