Marcus Kleinehagenbrock

About

Marcus Kleinehagenbrock is a robotics researcher whose work has been instrumental in advancing human-robot interaction (HRI) for service and companion robots in everyday environments. His research focuses on enabling mobile robots to perceive, track, and naturally engage with human users — a foundational challenge for deploying robots in homes and offices where non-expert users require intuitive interaction. His most influential contributions center on the BIRON (Bielefeld Robot Companion) project, a pioneering platform that demonstrated how robots could communicate naturally through attention systems, multimodal sensing, and person tracking. His widely cited work on multi-modal anchoring (108 citations) and attention-based interaction (116 citations) established robust frameworks for integrating vision, laser range data, and audio to reliably track and engage human partners. These papers collectively represent some of the earliest and most comprehensive technical foundations for socially aware mobile robots. Kleinehagenbrock also contributed significantly to flexible robot control architectures, addressing the complex demands of dynamic, human-populated environments. With over 600 cumulative citations across his key publications, his work helped shape an entire generation of research on companion robots, influencing how the field approaches safety, adaptability, and natural communication in real-world HRI systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Providing the basis for human-robot-interaction

   116 citations · 2003
2. 2
   Multi-modal anchoring for human–robot interaction

   108 citations · 2003
3. 3
   BIRON - The Bielefeld Robot Companion

   105 citations · 2004
4. 4
   Person tracking with a mobile robot based on multi-modal anchoring

   87 citations · 2003
5. 5
   Audiovisual Person Tracking with a Mobile Robot

   74 citations · 2004
6. 6
   Supporting advanced interaction capabilities on a mobile robot with a flexible control system

   31 citations · 2005
7. 7
   A Flexible Infrastructure for the Development of a Robot Companion with Extensible HRI-Capabilities

   30 citations · 2006
8. 8
   "BIRON, let me show you something": evaluating the interaction with a robot companion

   25 citations · 2005
9. 9
   Providing the basis for human-robot-interaction

   20 citations · 2003
10. 10
    Research Issues for Designing Robot Companions: BIRON as a Case Study

    14 citations · 2004

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links