The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence DFKI was founded in 1988 as a non-profit private research center dedicated to Artificial Intelligence (AI). With research facilities in Kaiserslautern, Saarbrücken and Bremen, a project office in Berlin, a Laboratory in Niedersachsen and branch offices in Lübeck, St. Wendel and Trier, and a staff of more than 1000, DFKI today is one of the largest "Centers of Excellence" in AI worldwide.
The DFKI’s Robotics Innovation Center (RIC) (http://robotik.dfki-bremen.de/en/startpage.html) in Bremen is headed by Prof. Dr. Frank Kirchner. At DFKI RIC, a staff of more than 100 researchers from all over the world are working together on R&D in robotics for a number of application areas, including space robotics, underwater robotics, search and rescue robotics, logistic/industrial robotics, health robotics, and automated driving.