Steffen entered the field of robotics during his Bachelor studies at the Free University Berlin, where he was a member of the FUmanoids team and participated in international humanoid robot soccer competitions. During his Master’s studies at the Technical University Berlin, he worked at the Robotics and Biology Laboratory (RBO), conducting experiments with human participants to identify the principles of successful human grasping and transferring them to soft robotic systems. During this time, he gained substantial experience in the control and fabrication of soft robotic hands.
He completed the Science of Intelligence Master track, allowing him to expand his focus beyond robotics to machine learning and computational neuroscience at the Bernstein Center Berlin. There, he wrote his Master’s thesis on grid cell development in biologically inspired recurrent neural networks based on neural plasticity.
After graduating, Steffen continued at RBO as a research assistant, where he focused on the development of highly dexterous, anthropomorphic soft hands using pneumatically driven soft continuum actuators. He led the development of the RBO Hand 3 and demonstrated its ability to replicate human grasping and in-hand manipulation strategies by exploiting passive-adaptive properties.
For his PhD, Steffen moved to the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology (BHT) to work on tendon-driven soft hands with variable stiffness. He is currently a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich, supervised by Alin Albu-Schäffer and mentored by Markus Grebenstein. His research aims to bridge the gap between mechanically simple soft hands and the high dexterity of complex robotic hand systems by closely imitating human hand biomechanics.