PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Stefan Schaal

Stefan Schaal is a robotics researcher whose work has focused on motor control and learning. He studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich, worked as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, and built a robotics lab in Japan. In 1997 he joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he rose to full professor. He helped found the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in 2009 and was elected an IEEE Fellow in 2013. In 2018 he joined Google X to lead a robotics research team, and in September 2025 he co-authored RoboBallet, a paper on planning for multi-robot reaching.

Now at
Google
Works
431
Citations
34,788
h-index
74

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1987

    A mechanical engineering diploma

    He graduates in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich in 1987.

  2. 1991–1994

    A postdoctoral fellowship at MIT

    From 1991 to 1994, he works as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab.

  3. 1992

    A robotics lab in Japan

    In 1992 he becomes an invited researcher at ATR in Japan, where he creates a robotics lab focused on biological principles of motor control and learning.

  4. 1997

    A professor at USC

    At the University of Southern California, he joins the faculty in 1997 and advances to full professor.

  5. 2009

    Founding the Max Planck institute

    In 2009 he becomes a key founder of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

  6. 2013

    An IEEE Fellow

    He is elected an IEEE Fellow in 2013.

  7. 2018

    A robotics team at Google X

    In 2018 he joins Google X to lead a robotics research team.

  8. September 2025

    A multi-robot reaching paper

    In September 2025 he co-authors RoboBallet, a paper on planning for multi-robot reaching with graph neural networks and reinforcement learning.

Sources and credits

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  1. Stefan Schaal – Computer Scientist in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Autonomous Systems stefan-schaal.net. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Oral-History:Stefan Schaal ethw.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Stefan Schaal - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Computational Learning and Motor Control Lab | Main / Stefan Schaal www-clmc.net. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Robot Learning: Towards Real World Applications | Contextual Robotics Institute contextualrobotics.ucsd.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. [2509.05397v1] RoboBallet: Planning for Multi-Robot Reaching with Graph Neural Networks and Reinforcement Learning arxiv.org. Checked 14 October 2026.