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About

Christoph Borst is a prominent robotics researcher whose work has fundamentally advanced our understanding of robot manipulation, grasping, and humanoid systems. Operating primarily within the German Aerospace Center (DLR) research community, Borst has made significant contributions to how robots perceive and utilize their own physical capabilities within complex environments. His most influential work, "Capturing Robot Workspace Structure" (2007, 267 citations), introduced sophisticated methods for abstracting and representing a robot arm's reachability — enabling robots to reason about manipulation possibilities much as humans intuitively do. This foundational capability underpins much of his subsequent research on mobile manipulators and task planning. Borst was also instrumental in developing "Rollin' Justin" (156 citations), an influential mobile humanoid platform designed for real-world servicing tasks, and contributed essential algorithms for grasp synthesis and power grasp planning for anthropomorphic robot hands. His research extends into space robotics, with notable contributions to on-orbit servicing simulation (78 citations), and into making humanoid motion appear naturalistic and human-like. Collectively accumulating over 970 citations, Borst's body of work has shaped modern approaches to dexterous robot manipulation, workspace analysis, and the design of capable humanoid service robots — making him an essential reference for researchers in robotics and autonomous systems.