People

Oliver Brock

Principal Investigator

Robotics

TU Berlin

 

Email:

Phone: +49 30 314 73111

 

Photo: SCIoI

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Oliver Brock

Oliver Brock

Photo: SCIoI

Oliver Brock represents the synthetic discipline robotics. He has extensive experience in building real-world robotic systems, contributing also to related disciplines, including perception and machine learning. Within the fields of robotics, he is a leader in leveraging collaborations with analytical disciplines, in particular psychology and behavioral biology, to work towards an understanding of embodied intelligence.

Projects

Oliver Brock is member of:

• Project 02: Capabilities and consequences of recursive, hierarchical information processing in visual systems
• Project 04: Intelligent kinematic problem solving
• Project 17: Dexterous and sensorized soft robotic hands
• Project 22: Ecologically rational strategy selection
• Project 28: Learning to manipulate from demonstration (to escape from a room)
• Project 30: Analyzing human physical reasoning and strategy exploration on physical puzzles
• Project 35: Differentiable interconnected recursive estimation as a principle of intelligence
• Project 43: Generating robust and general real-world behavior by exploiting regularities at multiple levels of abstraction
• Project 49: Parrobots II
• Project B1:
• Project S2: Support Synthetic Research
Mengers, V., Battaje, A., & Brock, O. (2025). AICON: A Representation for Adaptive Behavior. 1st German Robotics Conference.
Mengers, V., Koenig, A., Li, X., Sieler, A., Battaje, A., & Brock, O. (2025). Stop Merging, Start Separating: Why Merging Learning and Modeling Won’t Solve Manipulation but Separating the General From the Specific Will. IEEE ICRA 25 Workshop.
Weber, L., Wienert, T., Splettstößer, M., Koenig, A., & Brock, O. (2025). Acoustic Sensing for Universal Jamming Grippers. IEEE ICRA 25 Workshop.
Battaje, A., Godinez, A., Hanning, N., Rolfs, M., & Brock, O. (2024). An Information Processing Pattern from Robotics Predicts Unknown Properties of the Human Visual System. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.20.599814
Baum, M., Schattenhofer, L., Rössler, T., Osuna-Mascaro, A., Auersperg, A., Kacelnik, A., & Brock, O. (2024). Mechanical Problem Solving in Goffin’s Cockatoos - Towards Modeling Complex Behavior. Adaptive Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1177/10597123241270764
Brock, O. (2024). Intelligence as Computation. IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1, 1321, 12001. https://doi.org/DOI 10.1088/1757-899X/1321/1/012001
Mengers, V., & Brock, O. (2024). No Plan but Everything Under Control: Robustly Solving Sequential Tasks with Dynamically Composed Gradient Descent. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
Mengers, V., Raoufi, M., Brock, O., Hamann, H., & Romanczuk, P. (2024). Leveraging Uncertainty in Collective Opinion Dynamics with Heterogeneity. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 27314. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78856-8
Mengers, V., Roth, N., Brock, O., Obermayer, K., & Rolfs, M. (2024). A Robotics-Inspired Scanpath Model Reveals the Importance of Uncertainty and Semantic Object Cues for Gaze Guidance in Dynamic Scenes. Journal of Vision, 25(6). https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.25.2.6
Pfisterer, A., Li, X., Mengers, V., & Brock, O. (2024). A Helping (Human) Hand in Kinematic Structure Estimation. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
Xing, L., Zenkri, O., Pfisterer, A., & Brock, O. (2024). A Biologically Inspired Design Principlefor Building Robust Robotic Systems. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.10192
Zenkri, O., Bolenz, F., Pachur, T., & Brock, O. (2024). A Complex Ecological Task for Extracting Principles of Exploration Strategies. Conference on the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB), 289–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-71533-4_22
Battaje, A., Brock, O., & Rolfs, M. (2023). An Interactive Motion Perception Tool for Kindergarteners (and Vision Scientists). IPerception. https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695231159182
Baum, M., Froessl, A., Battaje, A., & Brock, O. (2023). Estimating the Motion of Drawers From Sound. ICRA 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161399
Godinez, A., Battaje, A., Brock, O., & Rolfs, M. (2023). Probing Perceptual Mechanism of Shape-Contingent Color after-Images via Interconnected Recursive Filters. Journal of Vision 23 / VSS 2023. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.9.4885
Li, X., Baum, M., & Brock, O. (2023). Augmentation Enables One-Shot Generalization In Learning From Demonstration for Contact-Rich Manipulation. IROS 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10341625
Mengers, V., Battaje, A., Baum, M., & Brock, O. (2023). Combining Motion and Appearance for Robust Probabilistic Object Segmentation in Real Time. ICRA 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160908
Patidar, S., Sieler, A., & Brock, O. (2023). In-Hand Cube Reconfiguration: Simplified. IROS 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10341521
Stahl, K., Graziadei, A., Dau, T., Brock, O., & Rappsilber, J. (2023). Protein structure prediction with in-cell phot-crosslinking mass spectrometry and deep learning. Nature Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01704-z
Sieler, A., & Brock, O. (2023). Dexterous Soft Hands Linearize Feedback-Control for In-Hand Manipulation. IROS 2023. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10341438
Wall, V., Zöller, G., & Brock, O. (2023). Passive and Active Acoustic Sensing for Soft Pneumatic Actuators. The International Journal of Robotics Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/02783649231168954
Baum, M., & Brock, O. (2022). “The World Is Its Own Best Model”: Robust Real-World Manipulation Through Online Behavior Selection. ICRA 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811845
Battaje, A., & Brock, O. (2022). One Object at a Time: Accurate and Robust Structure From Motion for Robots. IROS 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981953
Baum, M., Schattenhofer, L., Rössler, T., Osuna-Mascaro, A., Auersperg, A., Kacelnik, A., & Brock, O. (2022). Yoking-Based Identification of Learning Behavior in Artificial and Biological Agents. SAB 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16770-6_6
Li, X., & Brock, O. (2022). Learning from Demonstration Based On Environmental Constraints. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters with IROS Option. https://doi.org/10.1109/LRA.2022.3196096
Pannen, T. J., Puhlmann, S., & Brock, O. (2022). A Low-Cost, Easy-to-Manufacture, Flexible, Multi-Taxel Tactile Sensor and its Application to In-Hand Object Recognition. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811761
Puhlmann, S., Harris, J., & Brock, O. (2022). RBO Hand 3 – A Platform for Soft Dexterous Manipulation. IEEE Transactions on Robotics. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2022.3156806
Wall, V., & Brock, O. (2022). A Virtual 2D Tactile Array for Soft Actuators Using Acoustic Sensing. IROS 2022. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981225
Baum, M., & Brock, O. (2021). Achieving Robustness in a Drawer Manipulation Task by using High-level Feedback instead of Planning. DGR Days. https://www.static.tu.berlin/fileadmin/www/10002220/Publications/baum21DGR.pdf
Battaje, A., & Brock, O. (2021). Interconnected Recursive Filters in Artificial and Biological Vision. DGR Days 2021, 32–32. https://www.static.tu.berlin/fileadmin/www/10002220/Publications/battaje21DGR.pdf
Bhatt, A., Sieler, A., Puhlmann, S., & Brock, O. (2021). Surprisingly Robust In-Hand Manipulation: An Empirical Study. Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems. https://doi.org/10.15607/RSS.2021.XVII.089
Páll, E., & Brock, O. (2021). Analysis of Open-Loop Grasping From Piles. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2591–2597. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561065
Roy, N., Posner, I., Barfoot, T., Beaudoin, P., Bengio, Y., Bohg, J., Brock, O., Depatie, I., Fox, D., Koditschek, D., Lozano-Perez, T., Mansinghka, V., Pal, C., Richards, B., Sadigh, D., Schaal, S., Sukhatme, G., Therien, D., Toussaint, M., & Van de Panne, M. (2021). From Machine Learning to Robotics: Challenges and Opportunities for Embodied Intelligence. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2110.15245
Zöller, G., Wall, V., & Brock, O. (2020). Active Acoustic Contact Sensing for Soft Pneumatic Actuators. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 7966–7972. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196916
Morik, M., Rastogi, D., Jonschkowski, R., & Brock, O. (2019). State Representation Learning with Robotic Priors for Partially Observable Environments. 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 6693–6699. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS40897.2019.8967938
Wall, V., & Brock, O. (2019). Multi-Task Sensorization of Soft Actuators Using Prior Knowledge. 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 9416–9421. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2019.8793697

Werner Heisenberg Medaille (2024)

Perraudin, L., Brock, O., Coelho Mollo, D., Mareis, C., Müller, M., Nestler, A., Puhlmann, S., Schäffner, W., Steinhardt, S. 2021. »Wenn Materie lebendig wird«. Experimentallabor für Wissenschaftskommunikation »CollActive Materials«. Berlin University Alliance, project funding for 2022-2024.
https://www.collactive-materials.de/

Research

An overview of our scientific work

See our Research Projects