Jan Peters
Jan Peters is a robot-learning researcher whose work applies reinforcement learning to autonomous robots. He studied computer science and engineering at universities in Germany, Singapore and the United States, completed a USC doctorate in 2007, and coauthored Natural Actor-Critic in 2005. His career included robot-learning groups at Max Planck institutes, a TU Darmstadt professorship, and the SKILLS4ROBOTS and AssemblySkills projects. He became an IEEE Fellow in 2019 and an ELLIS Fellow in 2020; his group received the 2021 Amazon Research Award for tactile manipulation. As of October 2026, he is a TU Darmstadt professor, heads DFKI’s Systems AI for Robot Learning department, and directs ELLIS’s Robot Learning program.
- Works
- 757
- Citations
- 27,103
- h-index
- 80
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1996–2007
Natural Actor-Critic and a PhD
He studies computer science and engineering at TU Munich, FernUni Hagen, NUS and USC and earns four master’s degrees. USC awards him a computer-science PhD in 2007. In 2005, he coauthors Natural Actor-Critic, a model-free reinforcement-learning method tested on an anthropomorphic robot arm.
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2007–2021
Max Planck robot-learning groups
He leads machine-learning-for-robotics groups at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics from 2007 to 2010 and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems from 2010 to 2021.
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2011–2015
SKILLS4ROBOTS at TU Darmstadt
He joins TU Darmstadt as a professor in 2011. In 2015, the ERC funds SKILLS4ROBOTS, his project to teach humanoid robots to learn motor skills.
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2019
An IEEE Fellowship
He becomes an IEEE Fellow in 2019.
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2020
ELLIS Fellowship and AssemblySkills
He becomes an ELLIS Fellow in 2020. The ERC awards him a 150,000-euro Proof of Concept grant for AssemblySkills, a project to help robots learn autonomously with AI.
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2021
Learning manipulation by touch
His group receives the 2021 Amazon Research Award for Learning Robot Manipulation from Tactile Feedback, a project on tactile feedback for robot manipulation.
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As of October 2026
Professor, department head and director
As of October 2026, he is a professor of Intelligent Autonomous Systems at TU Darmstadt and heads DFKI’s Systems AI for Robot Learning department. He directs ELLIS’s Robot Learning program.
Sources and credits
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- Intelligent Autonomous Systems | Team / Jan Peters
- Short Bio: Jan Peters
- Natural Actor-Critic
- Flexible Bewegungen, automatisch gelernt – TU Darmstadt
- Artificial Intelligence for flexible robots – TU Darmstadt
- Award for robotics expert – Computer Science – TU Darmstadt
- Jan Peters | European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems