Nicolas Lange

Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Nicolas Lange is a leading researcher at the intersection of robotics history and tactile sensing technology. His work bridges two seemingly distinct domains: the cultural and historical evolution of humanoid machines, and the cutting-edge engineering of robotic perception systems. Lange’s major contribution lies in contextualizing the long human quest to create machines in our own image, while simultaneously advancing the practical technologies that make such machines more capable. His 2018 book, *Robots: The 500-year Quest to Make Machines Human*, curated alongside a major exhibition at the Science Museum in London, has garnered 19 citations and stands as a definitive cultural history of robotics. More recently, his 2021 paper on "Empowering Robots for Multimodal Tactile Gripping using Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers" (12 citations) demonstrates a novel platform integrating proximity and tactile sensing directly into robotic grippers, enabling reactive grasping. This work is pivotal for developing robots that can safely and intelligently interact with their environment. By uniting historical perspective with hands-on engineering innovation, Lange offers a uniquely holistic view of robotics, making him a vital voice for students and researchers interested in both the past and future of intelligent machines.