PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Sabine Hauert

Sabine Hauert is a swarm engineer at the University of Bristol who designs robot swarms for people, from nanoparticles that treat cancer to drones that detect wildfires and robots that move goods in warehouses. After computer science studies at EPFL and a PhD there on aerial robot swarms, awarded in 2010, she spent 2011 to 2014 at MIT as a Human Frontier Science Program fellow, using machine learning and crowdsourcing to design cooperative nanoparticles for cancer treatment. She joined Bristol as a Lecturer in Robotics in 2014, became Associate Professor (Reader) of Swarm Engineering in 2020, and sat on the Royal Society's Machine Learning Working Group from 2015 to 2017. Bristol announced her honorary OBE for services to robotics in February 2026. She is Professor of Swarm Engineering at Bristol and President and co-founder of Robohub.

Now at
University of Bristol and Robohub
Born
1983
Works
206
Citations
2,254
h-index
24
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001–2010

    Flying robot swarms at EPFL

    She studies computer science at EPFL from 2001, including an exchange year at Carnegie Mellon University in 2004–2005, where she works under Professor Veloso on the odometry of AIBO robots for RoboCup soccer. Her EPFL PhD on the evolutionary synthesis of communication-based strategies for aerial robot swarms, supervised by Dario Floreano and Jean-Christophe Zufferey, is awarded in 2010.

  2. 2011–2014

    Nanoparticle swarms at MIT

    She joins MIT in 2011 as a Human Frontier Science Program cross-disciplinary postdoctoral fellow under Professor Bhatia. Her project designs cooperative nanoparticles for cancer treatment using machine learning and crowdsourcing, with validation in vitro on tissue-on-a-chip constructs.

  3. 2014–2020

    Lecturer in Robotics at Bristol

    She joins the University of Bristol as Lecturer in Robotics in 2014, becomes Senior Lecturer in Robotics in 2019, and takes the post of Associate Professor (Reader) of Swarm Engineering in 2020.

  4. 2015

    Ethics of AI in Nature

    In May 2015, Nature publishes the feature "Robotics: Ethics of artificial intelligence", in which four researchers, Hauert among them, share their concerns and solutions for reducing societal risks from intelligent machines.

  5. 2015–2017

    Royal Society machine learning group

    She is a member of the Royal Society's Machine Learning Working Group from November 2015 to December 2017, while a Lecturer in Robotics at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.

  6. 2022

    Open Source Robotics Foundation board

    In 2022, she joins the board of directors of the Open Source Robotics Foundation, a nonprofit created in 2012 to steward the ROS community, alongside Yuki Nakagawa.

  7. 2026

    An honorary OBE

    In February 2026, the University of Bristol announces that she has been awarded an honorary OBE in recognition of her services to robotics. Her team has demonstrated drone swarms detecting and mitigating wildfires and has tested swarms for warehouse logistics and last-mile delivery.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor of Swarm Engineering

    She is Professor of Swarm Engineering in Bristol's School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, and principal investigator of the Trustworthy Robot Swarms to Power City-Scale Logistics project (2025–2030) and the Co-AIMS research hub on collaborative AI for manufacturing sustainability (2025–2032). She is also President and co-founder of Robohub, and Executive Trustee of the Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence, a charity that connects the robotics and AI communities with the public through Robohub and AIhub.

Career

  1. Since 2014University of BristolLecturer in Robotics, Senior Lecturer in Robotics
  2. NowRobohubCo-founder, President
  3. From 2022Open Source Robotics FoundationDirector
  4. 2018–2025University of the West of England
  5. 2017–2026Bristol Robotics Laboratory
  6. 2011–2014Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyCross-disciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 2010EPFLPhD
  2. 2005Carnegie Mellon UniversityExchange student
  3. From 2001EPFLComputer science studies

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Morphogenesis in robot swarms2018 · Science Robotics · 206 citations
  2. Robotics: Ethics of artificial intelligence2015 · Nature · 155 citationsWith Manuela Veloso, Russ Altman and Stuart Russell
  3. Synthetic and living micropropellers for convection-enhanced nanoparticle transport2019 · Science Advances · 152 citationsWith Bradley Nelson
  4. Evolved swarming without positioning information: an application in aerial communication relay2008 · Autonomous Robots · 137 citationsWith Dario Floreano
  5. Reynolds flocking in reality with fixed-wing robots: Communication range vs. maximum turning rate2011 · IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) · 129 citationsWith Dario Floreano

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Bristol. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Bristol. 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.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Bristol. 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.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Sabine Hauert – Hauert Lab hauertlab.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Sabine Hauert - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Robotics: Ethics of artificial intelligence: Shape the debate, don't shy from it - University of Bristol research-information.bris.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Dr Sabine Hauert | Royal Society Fellows royalsociety.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Intrinsic Acquires OSRC and OSRC-SG — Open Robotics openrobotics.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. February: University of Bristol roboticist awarded honorary OBE | News and features | University of Bristol bristol.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Professor Sabine Hauert - Our People bristol.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. team - Robohub, Connecting the robotics community to the world robohub.org. Checked 20 October 2026.