PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Danica Kragic

Also known as Danica Kragic Jensfelt, Danica Kragić Jensfelt

Danica Kragic is a KTH robotics professor whose research connects computer vision and machine learning with robot manipulation. She trained in mechanical engineering at Rijeka and computer science at KTH, then moved from postdoctoral research into KTH faculty and robotics leadership. Her projects span flexible object manipulation, bimanual robot hands, and digital scent transmission. The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society gave her its Early Academic Career Award in 2007, and later ERC grants backed her work on manipulation and smell. As of October 2026, she heads KTH's Robotics, Perception and Learning division and ELLIS Unit Sweden, and leads research on AI models for human smell perception.

Timeline

  1. 1971–2004

    From Rijeka to robotics

    Born in Rijeka in 1971, she earned an MSc in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Rijeka in 1995 and a PhD in Computer Science at KTH in 2001. After two postdoctoral years at KTH, she visited Johns Hopkins University in 2003 and INRIA Rennes in 2004.

  2. 2007

    An early career award

    The IEEE Robotics and Automation Society gave her its Early Academic Career Award in 2007.

  3. 2008–2018

    Leading a robotics centre

    She became a professor at KTH in 2008 and directed its Centre for Autonomous Systems through 2018. She also headed the Computer Vision and Active Perception Lab from 2010 to 2014.

  4. 2012

    Learning flexible hands

    In 2012, she received an ERC Starting Grant. Her FLEXBOT project explored flexible object manipulation, linking vision-based analysis of human hand motion with topological representations and mapping and control for robotic hands.

  5. 2020

    Robot hands at work

    An ERC Advanced Grant funded her BIRD project, Bimanual Manipulation of Rigid and Deformable Objects. The team studied how to make robot hands function like human hands.

  6. 2023

    Sending smells digitally

    She joined D2Smell, an ERC Synergy project for digital scent transmission and recreation. The team planned to collect smells in one place and send scent codes over the internet.

  7. 2024

    Joining Croatia's academy

    She became a corresponding member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in its technical sciences class.

  8. As of October 2026

    Leading robotics at KTH and ELLIS

    As of October 2026, she is Professor and Head of Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning at KTH and Unit Director and Fellow at ELLIS Unit Sweden. She is Co-PI of Digital Futures' Robotic Matter project and the principal investigator of a 2026 Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation project on AI models for human smell perception.

Sources and credits

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  1. Prof. Danica Kragic people.kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Kragić Jensfelt Danica – HAZU info.hazu.hr. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Research csc.kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. RPL Professor awarded large EU grant kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. KTH researchers receive ERC Synergy Grants kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Danica Kragic Jensfelt | Digital Futures digitalfutures.kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Sweden | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems ellis.eu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Can AI learn to smell? Researchers turn to the human nose kth.se. Checked 14 October 2026.