Detlef Zühlke
Detlef Zuehlke (born 1949 in Bad Pyrmont) is a German engineer and professor. Career. Zühlke studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at the technical university RWTH Aachen. In 1983, he obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering (robot programming) at the Machine Tools Laboratory (WZL) at Aachen's university. From 1985 to 1991, he worked for German Lufthansa AG, where he held several management positions such as head of the aircraft maintenance department. From 1991 to March 31, 2017, Zühlke held the chair for Production Automation (pak) at the Technical University Kaiserslautern. There, he founded the Center for Human-Machine -Interaction (ZMMI) in 1998 which provides research and services in the area of the design of human-machine-systems for industrial applications. From 2009 to May 31, 2017, he was Director of the Research Department “ Innovative Factory Systems” at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH. Zühlke is the main initiator of the Technologie-Initiative SmartFactory KL e.V. founded in 2005 as a non-profit association. It is an Industrie 4.0 network of industrial and research partners who jointly carry out projects regarding the factory of the future. "SmartFactory" is a manufacturer-independent demonstration and research platform  which is unique in the world. Here, innovative information and communications technologies and their application are tested and developed in a realistic, industrial production environment. The technology initiative, supported by the active participation of its members, has already established pragmatic solutions, first products and common standards. Since 2014, the production plant is annually exhibited at the trade show Hannover Messe in Germany. In May 2019 Zühlke handed the Smartfactory-KL Chair to Martin Ruskowski. Thereafter, he organized and founded together with Smartfactory-KL / Germany, Brainport Industries / Netherlands und Flanders Make / Belgium the european umbrella organization SmartFactory-EU EWIV located in  Kaiserslautern. Since then he became the executive Director. This association offers a platform for all european operators of research and demonstration facilities for smart manufacturing technologies in order to strengthen their cooperation and information. Zühlkes main research topic has been the transfer of the "Internet of Things" into the future factory environment to create the "Factory of Things".