Eckehard Steinbach knows from his own experience what it feels like when start-ups "take flight." In 2013, three of his doctoral students founded NavVis — a specialist in digitalizing interiors — based on many years of research at his chair. "The company is now the global market leader in spatial intelligence," says Steinbach. The Professor of Media Technology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has mentored the company, which now has 400 employees, from research through patent applications and various funding phases to a functioning and successful market player. "I've also supported start-ups that didn't work," Steinbach adds. This mix ultimately tipped the scales in favor of him taking over this area at MIRMI, which helps to "bring the horsepower of research to the streets."
Robotics start-ups at TUM have received more than 20 million euros in funding since 2020
Steinbach has created a structure to support this. Today, the TUM Venture Lab Robotics/AI and the robo.innovate incubator support students who plan to turn their research in robotics and AI into business ideas — right up to founding their start-ups:
- For example, the TUM initiative TUM Venture Lab Robotics/AI, funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Science, organizes events where students learn the special mindset that defines young entrepreneurs.
- robo.innovate, funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, provides students with office space and maker spaces free of charge and also hosts a robotics-specific hackathon each year. Again and again, some of these teams stay together and continue to develop their ideas.
Together, they offer budding founders an ecosystem where exciting new companies do not go unnoticed. Founders usually continue with an EXIST start-up grant that provides a monthly salary.
Robotics start-ups from TUM — including Olive Robotics (AI-based modular robotics), cleaning robot manufacturer Angsa Robotics, autonomous sailing freighter maker Cargokite, and Hula Earth (specialized in biodiversity monitoring) — all began this way and have been set on the road to success in recent years. Since its founding in 2021, robo.innovate has supported over 70 start-ups. About two-thirds of them go on to establish their own start-up. The success confirms the effectiveness of Prof. Steinbach's efforts and the combined structure of the Venture Lab and robo.innovate: robotics start-ups have received over 20 million euros in funding in the past four years.
MIRMI infrastructure: Robotics labs and major new projects for embodied lab intelligence and robotics in care
Many of these students have already become familiar with TUM’s infrastructure — laboratories where they conducted their bachelor's, master's, or doctoral theses and tested hardware and software. Researchers are currently developing new solutions for robotic hand grasping, algorithms for robotic arms, four-legged robots, humanoids, and networked vehicles. These efforts are taking place in locations including the Parkring in Garching-Hochbrück, the Siemens Technology Center at the Garching research campus, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Georg-Brauchle-Ring next to the O2 Tower, and the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Two notable projects under Prof. Steinbach’s leadership are in preparation: In three to four years, the TUM Center for Embodied Laboratory Intelligence (TUM ELI) will launch — the first AI experimentation space for automated knowledge generation — essentially, a highly intelligent lab for designing and conducting experiments. Also in planning is the TUM Campus Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In collaboration with Caritas and the LongLeif Foundation, TUM aims to establish a center where research and practice in care robotics come together.
