Ph.D. Max Spahn
Freiburg, Germany
About
Driven by a passion for developing innovative software solutions, my career has focused on creating efficient and effective algorithms. Over the past five years in both academic and corporate research, I have developed novel methods for solving complex computational problems and implemented existing solutions for robotics applications.
Committed to the open-source community, I advocate for making research and software developments publicly accessible to foster collaboration and continuous improvement. Understanding the complexities and challenges of reliable software systems, I am enthusiastic about joining a competitive team in my next role. I aim to contribute my expertise in software engineering and robotics to develop cutting-edge solutions in fields relevant to society.
Skills
programming: python, C++, git, ROS1/ROS2, LaTeX, bash
optimization: non-linear constrained optimization for dynamic programming, optimization on Riemannian manifolds, Bayesian optimization for hyperparameter tuning
robotics: forward and inverse kinematics, impedance control for compliant trajectory generation, receding horizon motion control, collision avoidance in human-shared environments in real-time
project management: leading and contributing to collaborative research projects, supervising several undergraduate students
languages: German, English and French
Experience
2025-
Research Scientist at ABB AG
- Researching new technologies for motion planning and control for industrial robots
- Integration of product-relevant features into software stacks for industrial robots
2024
Post-Doctoral Researcher @ Delft University of Technology
- Integrating non-Riemannian trajectory generation into manipulation tasks
- Leading a group of researchers to develop a live demo of
multiple mobile manipulators in a human-shared environment
Education
2020-2024
Ph.D. in Robotics @ Delft University of Technology
- Thesis: Trajectory Generation for Mobile Manipulators with Differential Geometry (Defense: 11.12.2024)
- Reactive trajectory generation for high-dimensional robots
- Using the geometry of the robot’s configuration space to generate consistent
- Combining several research projects into a proof-of-concept demonstration in supermarket automation
2013-2019
RWTH Aachen, Mechanical Engineering, B.Sc. and M.Sc.
- focus on computational fluid dynamics and robotics
- Master thesis: Modeling High Weissenberg number flows in OpenFOAM
- Bachelor thesis: A Robust and Predictable Algorithm for the Numerical Solution of the Inverse Kinematics Problem for Serial Robots
2015-2017
École Centrale Supéléc Paris, M.Sc. (Double Degree T.I.M.E.)
- focus on fundamental mathematics
- several courses on algorithms and computer science
Publications
Journals
2025
M Spahn, S Bakker, J Alonso-Mora: “Overcoming Explicit Environment Representations with Geometric Fabrics”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
2025
T Merva, S Bakker, M Spahn, D Zhao, I Virgala, J Alonso-Mora: “Globally-Guided Geometric Fabrics for Reactive Mobile Manipulation in Dynamic Environments”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
2025
C Pezzato, C Salmi, E Trevisan, M Spahn, J Alonso-Mora, CH Corbato: “Sampling-based Model Predictive Control Leveraging Parallelizable Physics Simulations”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
2023
M. Spahn, M. Wisse, J. Alonso-Mora: “Dynamic Optimization Fabrics for Motion Generation”, IEEE Transactions on Robotics
2022
C. Meo, G. Franzese, C. Pezzato, M. Spahn, P. Lanillos: “Adaptation Through Prediction: Multisensory Active Inference Torque Control”, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems
2020
M. Frings, N. Hosters, C. Müller, M. Spahn, C. Susen, K. Key, S. Elgeti: SplinLib: A Modern Multipurpose C++ Spline Library”, Advances in Engineering Software
Conferences
2024
M. Spahn, C. Pezzato, C. Salmi, R. Dekker, C. Wang, C. Pek, J. Kober, J. Alonso-Mora, C. Hern'andez Corbato, M. Wisse: “Demonstrating Adaptive Mobile Manipulation in Retail Environments”, Robotics: Science and Systems
2023
M. Spahn, J. Alonso-Mora: “Autotuning Symbolic Optimization Fabrics for Trajectory Generation”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
2023
S. Bakker, L. Knödler, M. Spahn, W. Böhmer, J. Alonso-Mora: “Multi-Robot Local Motion Planning Using Dynamic Optimization Fabrics”, IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot & Multi-Agent Systems
2022
M. Spahn, C. Salmi, J. Alonso-Mora: “Local Planner Bench: Benchmarking for Local Motion Planning”, Workshop at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems
2021
M. Spahn, B. Brito, J. Alonso-Mora: “Coupled Mobile Manipulation via Trajectory Optimization with Free Space Decomposition”, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Projects
Geometric Fabrics for robot trajectory generation
- Geometric fabrics formulate trajectory generation as second order dynamical systems on (non-)Riemannian manifolds
- This implementation is robot-agnostic and has been used in several research projects
- The project uses continuous integration and modern software engineering practices
- https://github.com/tud-amr/fabrics
Generic robotics gymnasium wrapper for pybullet and MuJoCo
- generic robotics gymnasium wrapper for pybullet and MuJoCo
- the wrapper is used by several researchers and students
- https://github.com/maxspahn/gym_envs_urdf
Robothon 2023, Platonics Delft
- participated in the Robothon 2023 with the Platonics Delft Team
- completed all manipulation tasks using learning-from-demonstration
- https://platonics-delft.github.io
Interests
- learning from my child, running, football, vegan cooking