From March 30 to April 2, 2026, the FAPS Chair, led by ESI member Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Franke, was once again a guest at the Bionicum in Nuremberg’s Tiergarten, where he provided fascinating insights into his research on social robots.

As part of several studies, the team examined perceptions of humanoid robots—including acceptance, uncanniness, and trustworthiness—as well as the effect of different colors on humanoid robots and the recognition of emotions using a robotic facial platform developed at FAPS.

In addition to the exhibits, visitors were also able to interact directly with the robots: with the Pepper robot equipped with ChatGPT and Visual Language Models (VLM), with the humanoid robot Unitree G1—known as “Klaus Jr.” at FAPS—and with the robot dog Spot.

The event generated a great deal of interest among visitors and provided a valuable opportunity to introduce current research to a broad audience.

You can find further information at FAPS’ Web Page

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Franke

Chair of Factory Automation and Production Systems