PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Cyrill Stachniss

Cyrill Stachniss is a robotics researcher whose work connects learning with mobile-robot navigation and perception. He completed a Ph.D. at the University of Freiburg in 2006 with a thesis on exploration and mapping with mobile robots, completed a habilitation in 2009, and worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and universities in Freiburg and Zaragoza before Bonn. In 2021, he coauthored OverlapNet, a deep network that detects loop closures from LiDAR scans, and he received the 2013 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award for his work on robot exploration and SLAM. He is a professor and lab head at the University of Bonn, a Lamarr Institute member, and a PhenoRob spokesperson as the cluster receives funding through 2032.

Now at
PhenoRob
Born
1977

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 2006–2009

    A doctorate in robot mapping

    He completes a Ph.D. at the University of Freiburg in 2006 with the thesis “Exploration and Mapping with Mobile Robots,” supervised by Wolfram Burgard. He completes a habilitation in 2009. Before working in Bonn, he is a lecturer at the University of Freiburg’s AIS Lab, a guest lecturer at the University of Zaragoza in Spain, and a senior researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the ALS Lab of Roland Siegwart.

  2. 2008–2013

    An IEEE robotics editor

    He serves as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Robotics from 2008 to 2013.

  3. 2010

    A Microsoft Research fellowship

    He becomes a Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow in 2010.

  4. 2013

    An IEEE career award

    He receives the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Early Career Award in 2013 for contributions to mobile robot exploration and simultaneous localization and mapping.

  5. 2015–2019

    Senior editor at RA-L

    From 2015 to 2019, he serves as a senior editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

  6. 2021

    OverlapNet for LiDAR SLAM

    In 2021, he coauthors OverlapNet, a deep neural network for loop-closure detection using 3D LiDAR scans. The network estimates scan overlap and relative yaw, then improves mapping when integrated into an existing SLAM system.

  7. 2025

    Oxford professorship and PhenoRob funding

    His visiting professorship in engineering at Oxford ends in 2025. In May 2025, the DFG selects PhenoRob for a second funding phase through 2032, and Stachniss is a cluster spokesperson.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and lab head

    He is a professor at the University of Bonn and heads its Laboratory for Photogrammetry and Robotics. He is a member of the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and a spokesperson for PhenoRob. His research focuses on probabilistic and learning methods for mobile robotics, navigation, and perception.

Career

  1. Since 2025PhenoRobCluster Spokesperson
  2. NowUniversity of BonnProfessor
  3. Until 2025University of OxfordVisiting Professor
  4. 2006–2009University of FreiburgLecturer
  5. 2006–2009University of ZaragozaGuest Lecturer
  6. 2006–2009ETH ZurichSenior Researcher

Education

  1. 2006University of FreiburgPhD

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Bonn. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Bonn. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Bonn. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Bonn. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Cyrill Stachniss yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Cyrill Stachniss – StachnissLab ipb.uni-bonn.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Freiburg Computer Scientist to Receive Junior Research Prize pr.uni-freiburg.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation ieee-ras.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. OverlapNet: Loop Closing for LiDAR-based SLAM arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Cyrill Stachniss — University of Bonn uni-bonn.de. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. PhenoRob geht in die zweite Runde aei.uni-bonn.de. Checked 21 October 2026.