Alexander Koenig

Alexander Koenig

I am a researcher and artist based in Berlin. I'm currently working on my PhD in Robotics at TU Berlin's Robotics and Biology Lab where I am advised by Oliver Brock. My research studies new control and sensing paradigms for soft robotic manipulation. In my artistic practice with Aqua Veen, I create audio-visual experiences that gravitate between experimental installations, generative music synthesis, and DJ sets.

Previously, I worked as a Research Fellow in the Harvard Biorobotics Lab and the Mechatronics in Medicine Lab at Imperial College London, and as a Machine Learning Researcher at Merantix in Berlin. I did my master's in Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence and my bachelor's in Engineering Science, both at TU Munich.

Publications

L. Weber, T. Wienert, M. Splettstößer, A. Koenig, O. Brock "Acoustic Sensing for Universal Jamming Grippers" In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2026

A. Sieler, A. Koenig, O. Brock "Trust the Hand: Lessons from 15 Years of Applied Co-Design for Soft Manipulation" In: Soft Material Robotics (SpringerLink, to appear), 2026

V. Mengers, A. Koenig, X. Li, A. Sieler, A. Battaje, O. Brock "Stop Merging, Start Separating: Why Merging Learning and Modeling Won't Solve Manipulation but Separating the General From the Specific Will" In: Workshop on Learning Meets Model-Based Methods for Contact-Rich Manipulation at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025

A. Sieler, A. Koenig, O. Brock "What Is the Key to Dexterous Manipulation: Learning or Compliance?" In: Proceedings of the German Robotics Conference (GRC), 2025

A. Koenig, M. Schambach, J. Otterbach "Uncovering the Inner Workings of STEGO for Safe Unsupervised Semantic Segmentation" In: Workshop on Safe Artificial Intelligence for All Domains at IEEE/CVF Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference (CVPR), 2023

A. Koenig, Z. Liu, L. Janson, R. Howe "The Role of Tactile Sensing in Learning and Deploying Grasp Refinement Algorithms" In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022

A. Koenig, F. Rodriguez y Baena, R. Secoli "Gesture-Based Teleoperated Grasping for Educational Robotics" In: IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2021

Talks

"Co-Design for Soft Manipulation at RBO: Past, Present, and Future" at Soft Material Robotics Symposium Hannover, 2025

"Recent Advances in Unsupervised Semantic Segmentation" at Switzerland Innovation Park Basel, 2023

"CVPR 2023 Conference Retrospective" at AI Campus Berlin, 2023

Media Coverage

Interview "Reprogramming Sensory Habits" with LeRandom, June 9, 2025

Interview "When machines learn to see differently, and artists start watching" with Science of Intelligence, July 24, 2025