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Dr. Freek Stulp
Postdoctoral researcher
Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group
Technische Universität München
E-Mail:
Telephone: +49 (89) 289-17752

Welcome to my homepage at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group at the Technische Universität München. I received the Doctorandus (=MSc.) degree in Cognitive Science and Engineering (now renamed to Artificial Intelligence) at the University of Groningen, where I also studied Biology for two years (as prerequisite for CS&E). During my studies, I held Research Assistant positions at the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour at the University of Edinburgh, as well as the Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica at the Instituto Superior Tecnico. Afterwards, I conducted my PhD research at the Intelligent Autonomous Systems Group at the Technische Universität München, under the supervision of Michael Beetz. I successfully defended my thesis on 19.10.2007.

My research objective is to implement control approaches for autonomous robots that will lead their behavior to be as robust, versatile, and adaptive as our own. To do so, I believe we must understand and exploit the general principles underlying animal and human motor control. For instance, my PhD research was inspired by human forward models, and focussed on enabling robots to autonomously learn similar action models. In my thesis and related publications, I demonstrate how these action models enable a variety of robots to optimize and coordinate their behavior. Robots should be designed to help people. An example is robots that assist and support the elderly, as in the SHARE-it project. Note that human-like robustness, versatility and adaptivity will be essential properties of robots if they are to assist people in unstructured environments.
Apart from this primary research theme, I also have an interest in Image Understanding, and Knowledge-Based Systems.

Some selected publications are listed below. The full list is here.

  • JAIR, 2008 - F. Stulp and M. Beetz. Refining the execution of abstract actions with learned action models. Accepted with minor revisions. Details

  • PAMI, 2008 - M. Wimmer, F. Stulp, S. Pietzsch, and B. Radig. Learning Local Objective Functions for Robust Face Model Fitting. To appear. Details

  • ICRA, 2007 - F. Stulp, W. Koska, A. Maldonado, and M. Beetz. Seamless Execution of Action Sequences. Details

  • PhD, 2007 - F. Stulp. Tailoring Robot Actions to Task Contexts using Action Models. Ph.D. Thesis, Technische Universität München, 2007.Details

  • ICRA, 2006 - F. Stulp, M. Isik, and M. Beetz. Implicit Coordination in Robotic Teams using Learned Prediction Models. Details

  • AAMAS, 2006 - F. Stulp and M. Beetz. Action Awareness - Enabling Agents to Optimize, Transform, and Coordinate Plans. Details

  • IJCAI, 2005 - F. Stulp and M. Beetz. Optimized Execution of Action Chains Using Learned Performance Models of Abstract Actions. Details

  • Aut. Robots, 2004 - M. Beetz, T. Schmitt, R. Hanek, S. Buck, F. Stulp, D. Schröter, and B. Radig. The AGILO 2001 Robot Soccer Team: Experience-based Learning and Probabilistic Reasoning in Autonomous Robot control. Details

On this homepage, you will find further information on my research, what I write about it, and what others write about it. It also lists the teaching I do, as well as miscellaneous other activities, such as playing in bands and dancing salsa.

Freekuently Asked Question: The not uncommon dutch name "Freek" is pronounced "Frrrake" (with a Spanish-style "r"). Don't worry, I'm not fussy about this: over the years abroad I have also learned to respond to "Fred", "Vague", "Flake", "Flag", "Freoch", and "Freak" (actually, one of the institutes I worked at always addressed letters to "Dr. Freak", though at the time I was neither). Contrary to the well-known English meaning, the original lesser-known Dutch meaning is "powerful protector". For completeness: "Stulp" means "humble abode".


Computer Science IX | Technische Universität München