Erik Helmut
Research Interests
Robotics, Machine Learning, Tactile Sensing
Affiliation
TU Darmstadt, Intelligent Autonomous Systems, Computer Science Department
Contact
erik.helmut@tu-darmstadt.de
Room E303, Building S2|02, TU Darmstadt, FB-Informatik, FG-IAS, Hochschulstr. 10, 64289 Darmstadt
+49-6151-16-20811
Erik Helmut joined the Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) at TU Darmstadt as a Ph.D. student in October 2025.
Before starting his Ph.D., Erik earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from DHBW Mosbach, where he specialized in virtual engineering. During his studies, he worked as a student engineer at GKN Automotive, where he conducted his bachelor's thesis on the development of a virtual torque sensor for drive shafts.
He later completed his Master's degree in Computational Engineering at TU Darmstadt, focusing on tactile sensing and imitation learning. His master's thesis entitled "Learning Visuotactile Grasping Policies from Demonstration Data" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Jan Peters, Niklas Funk, Tim Schneider, and Cristiana de Farias.
Publications
Conferences & Journals
- Afzal, N.; Funk, N.; Helmut, E.; Peters, J.; Ward-Cherrier, B. (submitted). Neuromorphic BrailleNet: Accurate and Generalizable Braille Reading Beyond Single Characters through Event-Based Optical Tactile Sensing, Submitted.
- Krohn, R.; Helmut, E.; Funk, N.; Peters, J.; Prasad, V.; Chalvatzaki, G. (submitted). Multi-Resolution Tactile Imitation Learning for Contact-Rich Robotic Manipulation, Submitted.
- Helmut, E.; Funk, N.; Schneider, T.; de Farias, C.; Peters, J. (2026). Tactile-Conditioned Diffusion Policy for Force-Aware Robotic Manipulation, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
- Helmut, E.; Dziarski, L.; Funk, N.; Belousov, B.; Peters, J. (2025). Learning Force Distribution Estimation for the GelSight Mini Optical Tactile Sensor Based on Finite Element Analysis, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).
- Funk, N.; Helmut, E.; Chalvatzaki, G.; Calandra, R.; Peters, J. (2024). Evetac: An Event-based Optical Tactile Sensor for Robotic Manipulation, IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO), 40, pp.3812-3832.
Workshops & Other Venues
- Helmut, E.; Funk, N.; Schneider, T.; de Farias, C.; Peters, J. (2026). FARM: Force-Aware Robotic Manipulation with Tactile-Conditioned Diffusion Policies, German Robotics Conference (GRC).
- Helmut, E.; Funk, N.; Schneider, T.; de Farias, C.; Peters, J. (2026). FARM: Force-Aware Robotic Manipulation with Tactile-Conditioned Diffusion Policies, 8th RoboTac IEEE/RAS International Workshop on Embodied Tactile Intelligence in Predictive Perception, Learning & Control in Grasping & Manipulation, in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), [Best Paper Award].
- Helmut, E.; Funk, N.; Schneider, T.; de Farias, C.; Peters, J. (2026). FARM: Force-Aware Robotic Manipulation with Tactile-Conditioned Diffusion Policies, Workshop on Tactile Sensing for Robotic Foundation Models Workshop, in conjunction with Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS).
- Helmut, E.; Dziarski, L.; Funk, N.; Belousov, B.; Peters, J. (2024). Learning Force Distribution Estimation for the GelSight Mini Optical Tactile Sensor Based on Finite Element Analysis, 2nd Workshop on Touch Processing: From Data to Knowledge, in conjunction with Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).
Others
- Helmut, E. (2025). Learning Visuotactile Grasping Policies from Demonstration Data, Master Thesis.
Supervised Theses and Projects
| Thesis/Project | Student(s) | Topic | Together with |
| RL:IP | Timur Uttsal, Kim Thanh Le Hoang, Boris Ohmer | JENGA! Learning Hierarchical Tactile Policies | Cristiana Mirandade Farias, Tim Schneider |
| RL:IP | Martin Carlsen, Fabian Buchenberger | LeWerkzeugkasten 1 - Assemble using tools | Theo Gruner, Ken Simmoteit, Kay Pompetzki |
| RL:IP | Emil Sivic, Jonathan Sutphen, Christian Kubitzek | LeWerkzeugkasten 2: Learning latent action spaces for imitation learning | Theo Gruner, Ken Simmoteit, Kay Pompetzki |
| RL:IP | Rui Li, Nick Göckel, Fawad Hussain | Imitation Learning for Vineyard Management | Tim Schneider, Kay Pompetzki |