Research in Focus: AI and robotics research in Germany
Smart minds, strong machines
We are in the middle of a revolution: Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our lives, the way we work, do business and interact with each other. Robots are working in factories and logistics centers and are coming to dominate in new areas, such as in civil security research, in the trades and construction industry, in the healthcare sector or in nursing care. Supercomputers sift through and analyze huge quantities of data and enable new research approaches in fields such as climate research or medicine.
Germany is already a major research and development player in AI technology and has set ambitious goals for its future development: By 2030, ten percent of Germany's economic output will be generated using AI. To accomplish this, Germany is launching an AI offensive to expand the infrastructure, initiate flagship projects for transfer to key sectors such as automotive, chemicals, biotechnology, cleantech, medicine and agrifood and support research in key fields such as materials, climate, biodiversity, energy and sustainability.
You can become part of this offensive and work on the project of the future in artificial intelligence. We illustrate Germany’s current position in AI research through two selected fields: medicine and robotics.
With its real-time data acquisition laboratory PACE, Fraunhofer IML offers companies the perfect arena in an industrial setting to test autonomous systems with scientific support and bring them to practical and market maturity.
At a glance: Why Germany is the ideal location for AI research
AI research at the top global level
Diverse, internationally well-connected scientific and industrial R&D landscape
High level of industry expertise in using AI
Strong open source community
Highly trained engineering and AI specialists
Human-centric focus in AI development
Unique position in the development of ecologically sustainable AI
Expertise in data protection, certification and governance
Kristel Michielsen, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in front of the JUPITER supercomputer
Supercomputing and AI factories – the backbone of artificial intelligence in Germany
Germany is one of Europe's leaders in AI infrastructure, and is continuing to expand it. HammerHAI, Germany's AI factory, a secure, powerful platform for machine learning, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, is being built in Stuttgart. The Jülich research center is also setting new standards: A second AI factory is being built there – home to JUPITER, Europe's first supercomputer capable of more than a trillion computing operations per second.
AI for health – German innovations for better medicine
Artificial intelligence drives advances in medicine. It is capable of analyzing huge quantities of data in the shortest possible time and applying these data to answer medical questions. For example, in cancer research, AI analyses help doctors plan more targeted treatments and create individual risk profiles. In the DECIPHER-M project funded by BMFTR [Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Aerospace] leading experts from the fields of medicine, computer science and biotechnology are working together using AI to investigate the development and spread of cancer metastases.
Planning Surgical Strategy in a High-tech Operating Room
AI for health – German innovations for better medicine
Artificial intelligence needs data – lots of data. All the university hospitals in Germany are joining forces in the Medical Informatics Initiative: Researchers from medicine, computer science and other disciplines are providing patient data from routine care for research via the German Portal for Medical Research Data. This yields new insight into earlier disease detection, better treatment and more effective prevention.
The Health Data Lab also gives researchers access to pseudonymized data from people with statutory health insurance – and the perspective is expanding past national borders with the emerging European health data space.
Planning Surgical Strategy in a High-tech Operating Room
AI for health – German innovations for better medicine
Artificial intelligence needs data – lots of data. All the university hospitals in Germany are joining forces in the Medical Informatics Initiative: Researchers from medicine, computer science and other disciplines are providing patient data from routine care for research via the German Portal for Medical Research Data. This yields new insight into earlier disease detection, better treatment and more effective prevention.
The Health Data Lab also gives researchers access to pseudonymized data from people with statutory health insurance – and the perspective is expanding past national borders with the emerging European health data space.
GOOD TO KNOW
Better Healthcare Through Secure Data
The Health Data Lab allows researchers to access pseudonymised billing data from Germany’s statutory health system – under strict security and privacy rules – to fuel better therapies, prevention and care.
AI in motion – world-class robotics in Germany
Robotics represents the pinnacle of artificial intelligence. And Germany ranks among the pioneers in this field: The country has the fourth highest robot density in the world and is the largest robotics market in Europe. The newly founded Robotics Institute Germany is intended to network the top locations for robotics research in Germany and pave the way to the top international league.
DFKI, Florian Cordes
Field test in the Utah desert with robot SherpaTT
From factories to labs – Germany’s robotics infrastructure at a glance
From the sea floor to outer space – German robotics research spans the globe. New laboratories are being established throughout the country, where machines are learning to grasp, think and act independently. At the Technical University of Munich, KI.Fabrik Bayern (the Artificial Intelligence Factory in Bavaria) is promoting the development of intelligent robots, while the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence is setting new standards for maritime robotics in its underwater laboratories. With PACE Lab, Fraunhofer IML (the Institute for Material Flow and Logistics) is building a globally unique test field for high-precision localization and radio communications, a key to autonomous systems.
DFKI, Florian Cordes
Field test in the Utah desert with robot SherpaTT
From factories to labs – Germany’s robotics infrastructure at a glance
From the sea floor to outer space – German robotics research spans the globe. New laboratories are being established throughout the country, where machines are learning to grasp, think and act independently. At the Technical University of Munich, KI.Fabrik Bayern (the Artificial Intelligence Factory in Bavaria) is promoting the development of intelligent robots, while the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence is setting new standards for maritime robotics in its underwater laboratories. With PACE Lab, Fraunhofer IML (the Institute for Material Flow and Logistics) is building a globally unique test field for high-precision localization and radio communications, a key to autonomous systems.
GOOD TO KNOW
Exploring New Ground with SherpaTT
SherpaTT is a hybrid wheeled-and-walking rover developed by DFKI’s Robotics Innovation Center. Built for rough and uneven terrain, it combines strength, adaptability, and precision – perfect for planetary exploration and demanding Earth missions.
The future is also taking shape elsewhere: Comprehensive humanoid platforms are being developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology with the ARMAR robots; humanoid robots Justin and Toro are supporting research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR); and the RBO Hand 3 robotic hand is mimicking human dexterity in the Robotics and Biology Lab at TU Berlin.
Industrial AI
Artificial intelligence is driving the development of Industry 4.0: machines and processes are intelligently linked and produce more and more data. AI then uses this data to generate information to streamline the production process and improve services. Cyber-physical systems (CPS) that connect the IT components with mechanical and electronic parts are analyzed and controlled by AI. However, AI is used in production not only for processes such as quality control or predictive maintenance. It also enables new forms of work and business organization, as well as new business models with huge scaling and growth potential. And it makes production more differentiated and personalizable.
Like for family-run mechanical engineering and conveyor technology firm Gebhardt in the German town of Sinsheim. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Technical University of Applied Sciences Mannheim, in collaboration with KIT spin-offs, have developed an AI-based control architecture that enables Gebhardt to control and organize material flows in production with maximum efficiency using driverless transport vehicles and robots. This makes production more flexible and allows individual series to be processed and produced.
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Germany is a leading hub for artificial intelligence research, combining world-class science, strong industry partnerships, and a dynamic innovation ecosystem.
Digitally networked technologies are already being used by seven out of ten industrial companies in Germany, and most other firms are already planning to follow suit. More than 40 percent of companies are now using artificial intelligence in their business processes, while nearly one in five is working toward rolling out AI-based systems in the near future.
The requisite digital infrastructure is in the process of being expanded: Deutsche Telekom for example has teamed up with Nvidia to build one of Europe’s largest AI factories – which the company calls “the world’s first industrial AI cloud”. From early 2026, up to 10,000 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs will power a 0.5-EFLOPS supercomputer for this industrial AI cloud, delivering 50 percent more AI computing power for Germany. This will enable German firms to further develop their AI models and applications in a secure digital ecosystem complying with European regulations.
More information on AI research in Germany
Information from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy: Artificial intelligence
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