In my project, which belongs to the research focus "From Morphology to Functionality", I am investigating the burrowing behaviour of bivalves. We intend to build both a computer simulation and a robot mimicking the burrowing process and the evolution of morphology in bivalves. For more information about this project, have a look at our research page.

My general research interests are: Artificial intelligence, artificial evolution, physical simulations, 3D graphics, virtual reality, neural networks, collective intelligence and game AI.

Daniel P. Germann, Wolfgang Schatz and Peter Eggenberger Hotz, "Artificial Bivalves -- The Biomimetics of Underwater Burrowing", FET11 The European Future Technologies Conference and Exhibition 2011, 4-6 May 2011. (Poster (pdf), 20 MB; Proceedings manuscript (pdf), 400 kB)

Daniel P. Germann, Wolfgang Schatz and Peter Eggenberger Hotz, "Bivalve burrowing robots: correlating shell morphology and movement pattern with burrowing efficiency", Design and Nature V, WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 138, pp. 389-402, June, 2010. (pdf, 5.6 MB, Copyright © 2010 WIT Press)

Agathe Koller-Hodac, Daniel P. Germann, Alexander Gilgen, Katja Dietrich, Maik Hadorn, Wolfgang Schatz and Peter Eggenberger Hotz, "Actuated Bivalve Robot -- Study of the Burrowing Locomotion in Sediment", Proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 3-8, 2010, Anchorage, Alaska, USA. (pdf, 2 MB, Copyright © 2010 IEEE *)

Daniel Germann, Wolfgang Schatz, Maik Hadorn, Andreas Fischer and Peter Eggenberger Hotz, "Retracing the Evolution of Bivalves in Simulation and Robotics", Posters of the 6th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, 2008. (pdf, 1 MB)

Daniel Germann, Wolfgang Schatz, Maik Hadorn, Andreas Fischer and Peter Eggenberger Hotz, "Correlation between morphology, behaviour and habitat – bivalve burrowing in simulation and robotics", Abstracts of the 6th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, 2008. (pdf, 1 MB)

Daniel Germann, "Top-Down Collision Detection with Multilevel Deformable Models", Master Thesis supervised by Dr. Miguel A. Otaduy and Prof. Dr. Markus Gross, ETH Zurich, 2007. (pdf, 6.4 MB)

* Copyright © 2010 IEEE.  Reprinted from the proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2010.  This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE.  Internal or personal use of this material is permitted.  However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org.  By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

Teaching Assistant

FS 2008: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

FS 2009: Robots built from scratch

HS 2010: The ShanghAI Lectures

HS 2010: Formal Methods for Computer Science II

HS 2011: The ShanghAI Lectures

In 2007, I received a Master's degree in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. My major was scientific computing, my minor artificial intelligence. In my Master Thesis, I investigated a new algorithm for the simulation of deformable objects. I'm working part-time for the ETH-spin-off company Dybuster AG.

My general interests are: computer science, graphics, simulations, physics, virtual reality, computer vision, (artificial) evolution, machine learning, neuroscience, psychology, politics, philosophy...

I like Aikido, classical music, (board/computer) games, playing the piano, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek...