News

  

01.07.2026: CRC1574 Funding Phase Workshop
Researchers of CRC1574 came together for a workshop to prepare the proposal for the second funding phase of the Collaborative Research Center. The event fostered interdisciplinary exchange across subprojects, generating new ideas and strengthening the shared vision of the Circular Factory. LinkedIn-Link

19.06.2026: CRC1574 at Science Notes Mannheim

As part of the Science Notes event in Mannheim, held during the 20th anniversary of Explore Science, CRC1574 research was presented to a broad public audience. Gisela Lanza gave a keynote impulse talk on the vision of the "Circular Factory for the Perpetual Innovative Product", contributing to the dialogue between science and society on sustainable production and circular economy. LinkedIn-Link

15.–17.06.2026: CRC1574 at CIRP CAT 2026
Researchers of CRC1574 presented two scientific papers from subproject B01 at CIRP CAT 2026, an international conference on computer-aided tolerancing and inspection in production engineering. One of the contributions received the 3rd Best Paper Award, recognizing its contribution to research in advanced manufacturing and circular production systems. LinkedIn-Link

09.-10.06.2026: CCPT Conference at CRC1574

The CCPT Conference brought together researchers and practitioners for company visits, a tour of the Circular Factory, and scientific exchange on production and circular manufacturing. The program featured keynote presentations and paper sessions, fostering interdisciplinary discussions and new perspectives on current research challenges. LinkedIn-Link

31.05.2026: CRC 1574 at IEEE ICRA 
CRC 1574 – Circular Factory had a strong presence at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026 in Vienna, contributing 8 full papers, 10 workshop papers, a live demo. Two contributions received Best Workshop Paper and Best Workshop Poster awards, while CRC1574 PI Tamim Asfour served as Program Chair of the conference. LinkedIn-Link

27.05.2026: Presentation at the Logistik Werkstatt Graz
Research activities of CRC1574 were presented at the Logistik Werkstatt Graz to industry representatives, fostering exchange between academia and industrial practice. 

May 2026: ESWC 2026 – Contributions from CRC1574 Researchers
Researchers from CRC1574 – Circular Factory contributed to ESWC 2026 in Dubrovnik with presentations on uncertainty reasoning in knowledge graphs, sustainability, and ontology alignment. LinkedIn-Link
07.05.2026: Invited Talk at MESCONF 2026
An invited talk titled “Ontologien für die Systemkommunikation” was presented by S. Staab at the MESCONF 2026 – The Modeling Conference held at the Infineon Campus. 
04.–07.05.2026: CRC1574 Hackathon at the University of Stuttgart
Researchers and doctoral students of CRC1574 participated in a hackathon at the University of Stuttgart.
22.04.2026: Visit of the reManuFactory Delegation to the Circular Factory
The reManuFactory delegation from Technical University of Denmark, including Tim McAloone, Dev Ramanujan, and Tobias Eifler, visited the Circular Factory at KIT to exchange insights and challenges related to circular strategies and value retention.
April 2026: Girls' Day at the Karlsruher Forschungsfabrik
As part of Girls' Day, 15 schoolgirls visited the Karlsruher Forschungsfabrik at KIT. Under the motto “The Factory of the Future – Artificial Intelligence & Robotics”, participants gained insights into current technologies and applications in production research. LinkedIn-Link

April 2026: CRC1574 Retreat in Gernsbach

The CRC1574 Circular Factory retreat in Gernsbach brought together researchers to discuss the further development of circular production systems. LinkedIn-Link

Mar. 2026: Co-Organization of the CVPR 2026 EgoCross Challenge
Kunyu Peng, a researcher of CRC1574 serves as a co-organizer of the CVPR 2026 EgoCross Challenge. This role supports international community building in egocentric and cross-view understanding and increases the visibility of B04’s human-centered perception research.

27.03.2026: Contribution to the WiGeP Book Project on Sustainable Product Development

CRC1574 contributed to the WiGeP book project “Sustainability in Product Development”, which brings together academic contributions, strategies, and innovative approaches for environmentally conscious and future-oriented product development.

23-26.03.2026: CRC1574 at the KIT Spring Academy
Following the opening keynote by Sven Matthiesen at the Sustainability Forum, researchers of CRC1574 organized and participated in the KIT Spring Academy. Workshops on angle grinder design, robotic disassembly, and circular business models highlighted the vision of the Circular Factory. LinkedIn-Link

16.03.2026–21.03.2026: Visits to Canadian Universities
Researchers of CRC1574 visited McGill University, University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, and Western University to strengthen and expand international research collaborations.

14.–16.03.2026: CRC1574 at the CIRP Design 2026 Conference
CRC1574 was represented at the CIRP Design 2026 Conference through research contributions and presentations on sustainable product development, systems engineering, and ontology development.

12.03.2026: Robotics Institute Germany Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award
A researcher associated with CRC1574 received the Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award for a thesis on unified movement primitives and reinforcement learning for efficient robotic skill learning.

11.03.2026–13.03.2026: CRC1574 at the German Robotics Conference
Researchers of CRC1574 attended the German Robotics Conference, contributing with a workshop, an oral presentation (top 8%), poster presentations, and a robot demonstration, while exchanging ideas on the developments in robotics research.  LinkedIn-Link

09.–11.03.2026: CRC1574 at the CIRP LCE 2026 Conference
CRC1574 was represented at the CIRP LCE – Life Cycle Engineering 2026 Conference through research contributions and presentations on sustainable product development and circularity analysis using the model of System Generation Engineering (SGE). LinkedIn-Link

06.03.2026: Visit of the Consul General of India to KIT

The Consul General of India, Shatrughna Sinha, visited the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. As part of the program, the delegation visited the wbk Institute of Production Science, where participants gained insights into the institute’s research activities, including the work of CRC1574.

03.03.2026: Visit to Remanufacturing Company ATC in Waldenburg

Doctoral students of CRC1574 visited the remanufacturing company ATC in Waldenburg. During the visit, participants gained practical insights into the complete remanufacturing process chain—from disassembly and cleaning to inspection, reassembly, and final quality testing. The exchange highlighted the important role of remanufacturing for resource efficiency and sustainable industrial production. LinkedIn-Link

02.03.2026: Engineering Seminar Series Talk at King's College London
As part of the Engineering Seminar Series at King's College London, research was presented on learning robot manipulation skills from human feedback and vision-language models as an alternative to hand-crafted reward functions.

26.02.26: CRC Women Researchers’ Evening

CRC1574 hosted a Women Researchers’ Evening at the High Performance Humanoid Technologies Lab (H2T), IAR at KIT. Professors, doctoral researchers and student assistants met for networking and exchange across career stages in a welcoming atmosphere. LinkedIn_link

17.02.2026: Visit of the Wirtschaftsförderung to the Circular Factory

CRC1574 welcomed representatives of the Wirtschaftsförderung to the Circular Factory to discuss the upcoming CCPT conference and the synergies between the project and the circular economy strategy of the City of Karlsruhe.

12.02.26: Visit of German–French Student Delegation at KIT

Students from Arts et Métiers visited KIT as part of an international delegation organized by the International Affairs Business Unit. CRC1574 presented its materials science laboratories and research activities related to circular production chains. LinkedIn-Link

06.02.2026: Visit of John Deere Representatives to WBK
Colleagues from John Deere visited the wbk Institute of Production Science to discuss autonomous systems in unstructured environments. The exchange highlighted the essential role of artificial intelligence in enabling adaptive, intelligent, and reliable system operation. 
04.02.2026: Provision of Sensor Devices to Local Companies
Within CRC1574 Circular Factory, sensor devices were provided to local companies to collect important field data. This enables a better understanding of real-world conditions and challenges in implementing circular strategies. The initiative strengthens the connection between research and industrial practice. 

02.02.2026: CRC1574 at the ICSC Conference in Los Angeles
Researchers of CRC1574 presented the paper “Efficient Uncertainty Propagation in Continuous Bayesian Networks Using GUM and Monte Carlo Methods” at the ICSC Conference in Los Angeles.

22.01.26: CRC1574 Winter School

Researchers and doctoral students participated in a three-day Winter School of CRC1574 including workshops on science communication, diversity in research, and a general assembly with project presentations and posters. LinkedIn-Link

22.01.2026: Presentation at the 23rd CEMS Research Seminar 2026
At the 23rd CEMS Research Seminar 2026 on Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Riezlern, researchers of CRC1574 presented a team formation algorithm for intralogistics in the Circular Factory.

20.01.2026: Participation in the maKeIT – KIT Panel on AI & Robotics
CRC1574 participated in the maKeIT – KIT Panel on AI & Robotics, discussing the role of collaboration and interdisciplinary research in translating advances in AI and robotics into real-world impact.

20.01.2026: CRC1574 at the RAMS Conference 2026
Researchers of CRC1574 participated in the 72nd Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS Conference). The conference enabled exchange with representatives from American industry and increased the visibility and recognition of the CRC’s research activities.

15.12.2025: Research Presentation at Eindhoven University of Technology
Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work on Multi-Robot Task Allocation to researchers in the field of Operations Research at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Nov 24–28, 2025: Participation in the RIG Bootcamp on Foundational Behavior Models
A doctoral researcher of CRC1574 participated in the first RIG Bootcamp on Foundational Behavior Models. The event provided valuable exchange on foundation-model approaches for embodied intelligence and their relevance to uncertainty-aware human process understanding.

18.11.25: CRC Hackathon on Knowledge Modeling

A Hackathon Week brought together interdisciplinary teams to develop models and demonstrators addressing uncertainty in data for Circular Factory applications, fostering collaboration between computer science and production engineering. LinkedIn_Link

14.11.2025: Presentation at the Symposium “Was Frauen forschen – Ein wissenschaftliches Kaleidoskop”
At the symposium “Was Frauen forschen – Ein wissenschaftliches Kaleidoskop,” organized by the Verband Baden-Württembergischer Wissenschaftlerinnen (VBWW), Prof. Dr. Rania Rayyes presented her latest research, highlighting the importance and progress of autonomous, versatile, and adaptive robotics for circular manufacturing.

14.11.25: CRC Research Presented at EMNLP 2025

Subproject A03 presented its research on reasoning over uncertain knowledge graphs at EMNLP 2025 in Suzhou. The work contributes to reliable and explainable AI for manufacturing knowledge systems within the Circular Factory.

13.11.2025: Keynote at the IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graphs
S. Staab delivered a keynote at the 16th IEEE International Conference on Knowledge Graphs (ICKG 2025) in Limassol, Cyprus.

10.12.25: Collaboration with KIT Works Fire Brigade

Researchers at IPEK collaborated with KIT’s works fire brigade to collect real application data for studies on angle grinder loads, supporting research within CRC1574.

Oct 19–25, 2025: CRC1574 at IROS 2025
Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work at IROS 2025. The conference enabled exchange with the international robotics community on perception, robustness, and industrial deployment challenges.

21.10.25: Hector Seminar Student Project Completed

Students Jakob Knippertz and Teodor Andrei successfully presented their Hector Seminar project on supplying power to sensor-integrated gears in power tools, contributing to research on condition monitoring and lifecycle evaluation in the Circular Factory.

20.10.2025: Workshop on Robot Learning From Human Teleoperation
The AIR research group (CRC1574 subproject C06) organized the workshop “Robot Learning From Human Teleoperation” together with researchers from University College London. The workshop featured contributions from leading experts from academia and industry, including Tamim Asfour, Xingxing Wang, and Sebastian Fischer.

15.10.25: IndustryFORUM 2025 – Keynote on Circular Factory

CRC1574 highlighted the IndustryFORUM 2025 event featuring a keynote by Prof. Gisela Lanza on the Circular Factory and sustainable industrial production. LinkedIn-Link

15.10.2025: Workshop on Bayesian Networks
A workshop on Bayesian Networks was conducted together with the Working Group Prediction of the Product Function.

Oct 4–10, 2025: CRC1574 at IEEE SMC 2025
Researchers of CRC1574 presented their work at IEEE SMC 2025. The participation increased the visibility of B04’s research on human perception and process understanding in intelligent and human-centered systems.

09.10.25: CRC1574 at the WGTL Kolloquium

Jan-Felix Klein presented the concept of the Circular Factory and research on knowledge-based intralogistics systems at the 21st WGTL Kolloquium. LinkedIn-Link

Oct. 2025: Visiting Scholarship at INSAIT Laboratory
A researcher of CRC1574 joined the INSAIT laboratory at Sofia University as a visiting scholar. The visit strengthened international collaboration in AI and computer vision, especially in the areas of robust perception and practically relevant machine intelligence.

22.09.25: CRC1574 Summer School

Researchers, doctoral students and international experts gathered for the CRC1574 Summer School including workshops, lab tours, guest lectures and a doctoral colloquium presenting current research on circular production. LinkedIn_link

15–19.09.2025: Participation in the ISAO School in Catania
Researchers of CRC1574 attended the ISAO School held in Catania. The program focused on ontology development, foundational and domain-specific ontologies, language models, and related tools and methodologies. 

08.09.2025: Invited Talk at the Aachen Symposium on Representation Learning to Act and Plan
An invited talk was presented at the Aachen Symposium on Representation Learning to Act and Plan, highlighting current research activities and approaches in representation learning and intelligent systems.

09.08.2025: Lecture at the Oxford Machine Learning Summer School
A lecture was delivered at the Oxford Machine Learning Summer School (OxML), contributing to international exchange in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

August 2025: CRC1574 Researchers at the 74th CIRP General Assembly
Researchers from CRC1574 contributed to the 74th CIRP General Assembly in Stockholm with presentations on remanufacturing, production planning, robotics, and sustainable manufacturing. LinkedIn-Link

15.07.25: Guest lecture of Hilti in the CRC lecture "The Circular Factory"

Guest lecture of Bernhard Strack and Ly Hoang from Hilti in the lecture Series "The Circular Factory" of the CRC. LinkedIn-link.

11.07.2025: Presentation of CRC1574 at the Endress+Hauser Annual Retreat
CRC1574 was introduced as part of a keynote presentation at the annual retreat of Endress+Hauser, highlighting the research activities and objectives of the Collaborative Research Center.

02.07.2025: Research Presentation at the IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control
Research results were presented at the 11th IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management and Control held in Trondheim, Norway.

02.07.25: Celebratory speech marking the 100th anniversary of Festo

Presentation of the CRC to the attending people of the 100th anniversary of Festo. LinkedIn-Link.

01. & 02.07.25: CRC Hackathon

Hackathon organized and sponsored by members of the CRC team. Participation of 80 students.

LinkedIn-Link

24. & 25.07.25: Visit of Erik Flores, Yongkuk Jeong & Magnus Wiktorsson (KTH) in the Circular Factory

Visit of the KTH Professors for Production Logistics. LinkedIn-Link

12.06.25: Visit to Deutz in Ulm with Students of the Lecture Series "The Circular Factory"

LinkedIn-Link

June 1, 2025: CRC1574 at the KG4S Workshop at ESWC 2025
CRC1574 participated in the Knowledge Graphs for Sustainability (KG4S) workshop at ESWC 2025. Researchers presented the paper “A Roadmap to Create a Knowledge Graph for the Perpetual Product” and chaired sessions of the KG4S workshop.

21.05.25: CRC Career Evening for Women

Career evening for women hosted by the CRC. LinkedIn-Link

20.05.25: CRC1574 at ICRA 2025

Researchers of CRC1574 – Circular Factory presented two scientific papers at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025. The contributions showcased current research results of the CRC in the fields of robotics and automation for circular production systems.

17.05.25: KIT open day

The CRC organized tours through the Circular Factory at the KIT open day 2025. LinkedIn-Link

12. & 13.05.25: CRC Retreat

Second Retreat in the active Phase of the CRC. LinkedIn-Link

22.04.25: Start of the Lecture Series "The Circular Factory"

Start of the Lecture Series with participation of the PIs of the CRC. LinkedIn-Link.

8.-10.04.25: Rematec and ICoR Conference

Participation of the CRC in the Rematec and ICoR conference

03.04.25: KIT Girls Day in the Circular Factory

High School students visited the Circular Factory on the KIT Girls Day. Colleagues of the CRC consortium held two Workshops. The first Workshop was about how a machine can learn from humans. The second was about 3D printing in action.

31.03. - 02.04.25: Spring School Circular Economy

Visit of the Spring School Circular Economy of the French-German Institute for Industry of the Future in the Circular Factory. Website-Link.

12.03.25: Karlsruhe Symposium for Product Production Co-Design

With the presentation of the CRC working group "Functional Modeling" given by Patric Grauberger and Jan-Philipp Kaiser. LinkedIn-Link

20.02.25: Workshop on knowledge modeling

All people involved in the CRC came together for a knowledge modeling workshop. The relevance for knowledge modeling was worked out for every subproject. The goal is to build up a joint knowledge base using ontologies and the data platform Kadi4mat. 

28.01.25: Excursion to Deutz in Ulm

Excursion to Deutz Plant in Ulm. Here, used motors are reworked. Exciting to see remanufacturing in industrial practice!

Linkedin-Link

22.01.25: Angle Grinder Workshop

Getting to know the angle grinder as the demonstrator product of our CRC

Linkedin-Link

20.01.25: Visit of C-ECO

Visit of PhD-students of the CRC at C-ECO. LinkedIn-Link

14.01.-16.01.25: CRC Winter-School

Two days of training and workshops followed by a day of guest lectures (Prof. Allwood - Cambridge, Prof. Hüttl-Maack - Hohenheim, Prof. Rashid - KTH and Prof. Sundin - Linköping) and a doctoral colloquium.

Linkedin-Link 1

Linkedin-Link 2

09.12.24: Visit of ZKM Karlsruhe in the Circular Factory

Visit of the "Zentrum für Kunst und Medien" (ZKM) in the Circular Factory. Coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Barbara Deml, possible collaboration in public relations was discussed.

07.11.24: First meeting of the industry advisory board of the CRC Circular Factory

Visit by representatives of industrial companies with a sustainability focus

Linkedin-Link

06.11.24: Karlsruher Herbsttagung 2024 - Circular Production – Paving the way for a Sustainable Future

Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza and Prof. Dr.-Ing Sven Matthiesen

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18.10.24: Conrad-Matschoß-Kreis

Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza

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15.10.-16.10.24: Produktionsmanagement-Tagung

Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza

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07.10.-08.10.24: Summit Allgäu Produktion

Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza

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17.09.24: Visit of Politicians in the circular factory

Visit of Ingo Wellenreuther (MdB), Nicolas Zippelius (MdB) and Ansgar Mayr (MdL)

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25.07.24: Visit of the KIT-Business-Club in the circular factory

Visit of representatives of industry partners of the KIT in the circular factory

Linkedin-Link

11.07.24: Career evening for women

Career evening for women pursuing a technical degree with interest for a doctoral program

08.07.-12.07.24: Summer School with General Assembly

Five days packed with scientific discussion, guest lectures, team building and workshops

Linkedin-Link

20.06.24: CRC Hackathon

Hackathon with students, financially supported by the CRC

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07.06.24: Visit of University of Strathclyde (Prof. Ijomah and Prof. Maier)

Keynote by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza 

Linkedin-Link

June 2024: Visit of Supply Chain AI Lab (Cambridge University)

Keynote by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza with the title "Maximizing the Resource Efficiency for a Value-Adding Sustainability"

Linkedin-Link

14.05.24: Visit of Deutz in the circular factory

Visit of representatives of the management of Deutz plant in Ulm in the circular factory

Linkedin-Link

29.04.24-30.04.24: Retreat and CRC Workshops

First team event with workshops for research in the CRC

25.04.24: Girls Day

Tour through the Circular Factory with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frederik Zanger for girls with interest in a technical degree.

22.04.-26.04.24: The CRC Circular Factory at the Hannover Fair

Presentation of the prototype hardware stations

Linkedin-Link

11.04.24: Filming of ZDF TV report

Visit of a film crew for filming a TV report in the circular factory

Link to report

03.04.24: Hager Group visit in the circular factory

Visit of Sabine Busse (CEO)

Linkedin-Link

12.03-13.03.24: World Remanufacturing Summit

Presentation of the CRC 1574 by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gisela Lanza

Linkedin-Link

Spring Academy: Keynote by Matthiesen (Part 1)

Spring Academy: Keynote by Matthiesen (Part 2)

Press releases

ZDF heute journal - TV Report

3sat NANO - TV Report

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Vision of the perpetual innovative product

‘On the way to the perpetual innovative product’ – The ‘Circular factory’ collaborative research centre at the KIT is revolutionizing industrial production

IndustryArena - The circular factory - the perpetual innovative product

Circular Technology - The perpetual innovative product from the circular factory

IDW - KIT: Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

PublicManager - KIT: Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Plastverarbeiter - KIT wants to optimize circular processes with a circular factory

Explortal-Logistics - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Magazin.tools - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Ingenieurmagazin - Development of a circular factory

Recyclingportal - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Ingenieur.de - The circular factory makes us dream of the eternal innovative product

Solarify - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

QZ-Online - Circular Factory for the perpetual innovative product

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Vision of the perpetual innovative product

Home of Welding - Circular Factory is set to revolutionize production

Alphagalileo - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Pro-physik - The circular factory for the perpetual innovative product

Oiger - Circular factory is set to produce the "perpetual innovative" product

Staatsanzeiger - Researchers are working on the vision of the perpetual innovative product

Bioökonomie BW - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Kabinett - KIT: Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Flüssiges Obst - Vision of the perpetual innovative product: The circular factory is set to revolutionize production

Greentech LIVE - KIT works on the circular factory for the "perpetual innovative product"