Sound and smoke Synapticon CEO Ensslen comments on Robotic Institute Germany

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The new Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) begins its work. But could the starting gun be followed by a shot in the oven? This is what Nikolai Ensslen is wondering. Here are his arguments...

Supported by all sorts of celebrities from research, economy and especially politics, the Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) started its work as the central coordination point for research on AI for robots in Germany a few weeks ago. Now that the initial show haze has cleared, Nikolai Ensslen, founder and CEO of the robotics supplier Synapticon, who recently launched a consultancy for AI in robotics in Stuttgart named Synapticon Intelligence, looks at the plans and hopes that have arisen around the RIG ...

"When a trend becomes serious, one calls for politics"

Ensslen says: "Basically, it is of course positive when initiatives like the RIG increase the noticeable attention to the topic of robotics in politics and media. This at least sets a certain impulse." However, the context in which this is happening is once again one where a technological trend is advancing at high speed in the important industrial nations. In Germany, we initially watch this, wonder, are partly impressed, partly tormented, because we all knew how to research this in Europe years ago, according to the expert. At some point, you then realize that the development is serious and then call for politics to urgently help the economy to quickly close gaps, or to jump on a moving train, before the competition finally disappears on the horizon.

Germany often engages in blind activism

Politics then once again does exactly what is necessary to at least short-term clear the topic and achieve a visible success—it sets up a working group or an organization, puts a building on the green field, and thereby proves its ability to act, according to Ensslen's experience. However, this activism usually has no relevant impact on the economy—apart from a few consulting contracts and the turnover of some construction companies. Parallel to this, discussions about the 4-day week or similar topics, which are important to the individual for the optimal design of his life time, are possibly still ongoing, as the Synapticon CEO interjects. Meanwhile, things are heating up in Asia and the US. If you look around to see which companies and their employees are really trying to try out new things and chasing high goals with a lot of effort, then the differences between Central Europe and the USA as well as China and Taiwan, et cetera, are hard to overlook, says Ensslen.

Good innovations often do not go into series production

In the labs and cellars of DLR, Fraunhofer, ETH, TUM, KIT, IIT, DTI, Tecnalia & Co., there are indeed fantastic ideas, prototypes, one-offs and test setups, as Ensslen further explains. "But then developing market-ready series products that are oriented towards the needs and budgets of customers, we leave this to the international competitors—this is a Europe-wide known pattern across all industries", the expert wonders. For him, it is often very frustrating to see how long it takes here until an idea becomes a product. This happens both due to the working speed itself and due to the too low willingness to invest or take risks on the part of donors and companies. Ensslen: "One simply continues to prefer to rely on the cash cows and does not give new things a chance."