Roboticist working on safe physical AI. Cofounder of AICOR Solutions.https://benjaminalt.ai/enhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/everything-is-logistics/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/everything-is-logistics/What makes hard work feel meaningful, and does meaning emerge?Sun, 05 Jul 2026 18:00:00 GMTpersonalhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/saige-physical-agi-threats/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/saige-physical-agi-threats/A summary of my invited talk at Safe AI Germany (SAIGE) on safety threats arising from physical AGI, and a tentative research agenda for grounding the discussion in empirical evaluations on real hardware.Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:00:00 GMTai-safetyphysical-airoboticstalkhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/bikepacking-northern-bay-area/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/bikepacking-northern-bay-area/A writeup of my one-week bikepacking trip through Northern California.Sat, 31 Jan 2026 01:00:00 GMTbikepackinghttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/krrood-framework/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2026/krrood-framework/Introducing KRROOD, an open-source framework that brings native knowledge representation and reasoning capabilities to Python and bridges the gap between symbolic AI and modern software development.Sat, 31 Jan 2026 01:00:00 GMTknowledge-representationreasoninghybrid-aipythonpaperhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/reproducible-robot-experiments-in-the-cloud/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/reproducible-robot-experiments-in-the-cloud/At the 1st Workshop on Embodied AI and Robotics for Future Scientific Discovery (AIR4S) at IROS 2025, my colleagues and I are presenting a robot execution tracing system and virtual lab environment to facilitate reproducible research with robots.Mon, 13 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMTrobot-learningscientific-discoveryopen-scienceinfrastructurepaperhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/ai-based-framework-for-wire-harness-assembly/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/ai-based-framework-for-wire-harness-assembly/At CASE 2025, my colleagues and I are presenting a novel AI-based framework for robust, data-driven connector mating in robotic wire harness installation, combining visuotactile learning with model-based optimization.Mon, 09 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMTrobot-assemblyrobot-learningvisuotactile-learningoptimizationpaperhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/semi-autonomous-robotic-assistance-for-gallbladder-retraction/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/semi-autonomous-robotic-assistance-for-gallbladder-retraction/A summary of our recent paper on a semi-autonomous robotic assistance system for minimally invasive surgery that allows surgeons to demonstrate retraction tasks while ensuring the interpretability of resulting behavior.Sun, 08 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMTrobot-surgeryrobot-learninglearning-from-demonstrationpaperhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/aicor-virtual-research-building/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2025/aicor-virtual-research-building/The AICOR Virtual Research Building (VRB) is our contribution to open science, replicable experiments and open education in robotics.Sun, 01 Jun 2025 05:00:00 GMTopen-sourceopen-scienceroboticseducationtalkhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2023/introduction-to-ai-safety/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2023/introduction-to-ai-safety/A talk I gave at an online LessWrong Meetup in Karlsruhe, Germany, covering the basics of technical AI safety.Fri, 17 Mar 2023 01:00:00 GMTaiai-safetytalkhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2023/agi-2022-a-year-in-review/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2023/agi-2022-a-year-in-review/A talk I gave at the 2023 Effective Altruism Retreat in Sigmaringen, Germany, outlining how pivotal AI technologies shifted narratives around AI and its impacts on society.Mon, 23 Jan 2023 01:00:00 GMTaiai-safetytalkhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2022/every-researcher-needs-a-pet-fish/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2022/every-researcher-needs-a-pet-fish/Why researchers should care about science communication, and how to use symbols and slogans to make a talk memorable.Sun, 25 Sep 2022 01:00:00 GMTscience-communicationhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2022/krr-in-industrial-robotics/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2022/krr-in-industrial-robotics/A lecture I gave at the 2022 EASE Fall School in Bremen, Germany, on the combination of explicit knowledge representation, reasoning and deep learning for industrial robotics.Fri, 23 Sep 2022 01:00:00 GMTairobot-learningroboticstalkhttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2021/icra-reading-list/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2021/icra-reading-list/My personal post-ICRA 2021 reading list with papers I came across while attending the conference and which I particularly want to read. It is also intended as a resource for my colleagues who did not attend ICRA this year.Thu, 03 Jun 2021 01:00:00 GMTreading-listroboticshttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2021/shadow-program-inversion/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2021/shadow-program-inversion/A companion blog post to our 2021 ICRA paper on data-driven robot program parameter optimization.Sat, 06 Mar 2021 01:00:00 GMTdifferentiable-programmingrobot-learningmlroboticshttps://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2018/object-tracking-with-spiking-neural-networks/https://benjaminalt.ai/blog/2018/object-tracking-with-spiking-neural-networks/How Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) and the Neurorobotics Platform can be leveraged for robot control and perception.Wed, 25 Apr 2018 01:00:00 GMTneural-networkshuman-brain-projectmlrobotics