Dr. Ralf Koeppe

Dr. Ralf Koeppe is CEO of WashTec AG, the world's leading provider of innovative vehicle washing solutions. The SDAX-listed company with 1,800 employees in more than 80 countries generated sales of €436 million in 2019.

Ralf Koeppe studied mechanical engineering at the University of Stuttgart and at Portland State University, Oregon. From 1992, he worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, where he worked on intelligent sensory robot control and the transfer of human robot skills and telepresence systems. He received his doctorate from ETH Zurich in the field of robotics and mechatronics.

From 2002, as Head of Research and Development at KUKA AG, he was responsible for the development of industrial robotics products, including KUKA's Quantec robot, the Titan robot and the KR C4 controller (KUKA Roboter 2005-2010) as well as the products of the human-robot cooperation LBR iiwa, KUKA Sunrise OS, mobile robotics and navigation and medical robots (Advanced Robotics Division 2011-2014).

From 2014 to 2019, he was Vice President Engineering & Manufacturing and CTO of the Automation & Electrification business unit at Bosch Rexroth AG, where he and his team developed the ctrlX automation platform and won the inaugural Bosch Engineering Award - Excellence in Agile Transformation in 2018.

Since 2005, he has been a lecturer at the University of Stuttgart in the field of robotics.

Status: September 2020