Our Institute - Our People
Profiling Philippe Fleischmann, Technician at the Robotic Fabrication Lab (RFL) here at the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) and member of the NCCR DFAB.
Philippe Fleischmann is Head of Industrial Robotics and Automation at the Robotic Fabrication Lab (RFL) at the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) and part of the NCCR DFAB. This summer, he travelled to Ottawa (Canada) for a sabbatical to help set up a new lab as an expert in industrial robots. But how did it come about that Philippe, a trained automation engineer, is now an expert in industrial robots in the world's largest laboratory for digital fabrication?
Before Philippe Fleischmann worked with robots in the Robotic Fabrication Lab (RFL) at ETH Zurich, he worked in industry. He originally completed an apprenticeship as an automation engineer at Späni Elektromechanik AG, a local industrial company in Switzerland. "The invisibility of electricity and the logic behind it fascinated me even as a boy," he says. At the company where he completed his apprenticeship, he learnt the basic concepts of automation. "I was fascinated by the further development of complex industrial systems," says Philippe, "and so I acquired the knowledge to develop and programme these systems in a higher specialist training course." Back then, industrial robots were not yet a major topic in the construction industry, he recalls.
Read the full article, by Lea Keller for NCCR DFAB external pagehere.