Dr. Ralf Koeppe

Ralf Koeppe is Vice President Research & Development of KUKA Laboratories.

He joined KUKA in 2002 as the assistant to the CEO and was appointed Vice President R&D of KUKA Robotics from 2005 to 2010. After completion of a major R&D program and market introduction of KUKA’s new productline he is now heading R&D of KUKA Laboratories GmbH. Following a strategic realignment, KUKA Laboratories was founded in 2011 with the aim to develop new products for the future markets of medical and service robotics. Furthermore, KUKA Laboratories is the technology hub of the KUKA group and responsible for new platform technologies.

Before joining KUKA, Ralf Koeppe was with the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) where he worked on intelligent sensory robot control, human robot skill transfer and telepresence systems.

Ralf Koeppe received the "Master of Science" degree in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University, Oregon (1989), the Diplom Ingenieur degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Stuttgart (1992), and the doctorate degree in Technical Sciences from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich (2002). Since 2005, he holds a lecture position at the University of Stuttgart in the field of robotics.

He received the Georges Giralt Ph.D. Award (2002), the DLR Innovation Award (2002), the IEEE Robotics & Automation Industry Early Career Award (2008), and the euRobotics Technology Transfer Award (jointly with DLR in 2011).