Martin Buss

About

Martin Buss is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work spans human-robot interaction, rehabilitation robotics, and autonomous systems. Based at the Technical University of Munich, Buss has made transformative contributions to how robots perceive, collaborate with, and assist humans in unstructured environments. His landmark 2008 survey on human-robot collaboration (479 citations) helped define the intellectual foundation of this rapidly growing field, articulating the cognitive and physical requirements for robots operating alongside people. Complementing this, his work on compliant actuation for rehabilitation robots (448 citations) advanced the design of assistive devices such as LOPES, addressing critical challenges in safety and haptic rendering for patients undergoing gait therapy. Buss has also shaped the field of robotic perception, with his comparative analysis of surface normal estimation methods (296 citations) becoming a standard reference in 3D object recognition. His early work on dextrous grasping force optimization (288 citations) demonstrated elegant mathematical solutions for robotic manipulation. Further contributions include affective computing through gait analysis, gesture-based robot instruction using depth sensors, and realistic haptic handshaking via hidden Markov models — reflecting a remarkably broad yet cohesive research vision centered on intelligent, human-aware robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   HUMAN–ROBOT COLLABORATION: A SURVEY

   479 citations · 2008
2. 2
   Compliant actuation of rehabilitation robots

   448 citations · 2008
3. 3
   Comparison of surface normal estimation methods for range sensing applications

   296 citations · 2009
4. 4
   Dextrous hand grasping force optimization

   288 citations · 1996
5. 5
   Reference Trajectory Generation for Rehabilitation Robots: Complementary Limb Motion Estimation

   226 citations · 2008
6. 6
   Real-time 3D hand gesture interaction with a robot for understanding directions from humans

   174 citations · 2011
7. 7
   Recognition of Affect Based on Gait Patterns

   151 citations · 2010
8. 8
   Structure decision method for self organising robots based on cell structures-CEBOT

   146 citations · 2003
9. 9
   An HMM approach to realistic haptic human-robot interaction

   123 citations · 2009
10. 10
    Force Tracking Impedance Control with Variable Target Stiffness

    117 citations · 2008

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links