Professor Kaspar Althoefer is a systems engineer, leading research on Robotics at Queen Mary University of London. After graduating with a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Technology Aachen, Germany, and obtaining a PhD in Robot Motion Planning from Kings College London, he joined the Kings Robotics Group in 1996 as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Professor in 2011, and in April 2016 he joined Queen Mary as full Professor of Robotics Engineering. His current research interests are in the areas of robot autonomy, soft robotics, modelling of tool-environment interaction dynamics, tactile sensing and neuro-fuzzy-based sensor signal classification with applications in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, rehabilitation, assistive technologies and human-robot interactions in the manufacturing environment. He was awarded more than £6 Million in competitive research funding from the Wellcome Trust, EPSRC, Innovate UK and the European Commission; he strongly contributed to the attainment of further grants in excess of £20 Million, especially through collaboration with colleagues at St Thomas Hospital London focusing on creating robotic solutions for the healthcare sector. Prof Althoefer was the coordinator of two EU projects (STIFF-FLOP and CONPHIRMER), and PI/Co-I on numerous further EU, EPSRC and industry-sponsored projects. He is currently the PI / Co-I of EU projects FourByThree and SQUIRREL and a project on landmine detection sensors funded by charity FABW (Find a Better Way), co-founded by Sir Bobby Charlton. Prof Althoefer has authored/co-authored more than 350 peer-reviewed papers. He is currently heading a team of 10 PhD students and PDRAs.