Dr.-Ing. Lars Ullrich
Chair of Automatic Control
Research associates
Address
Cauerstraße 7-991058 Erlangen
Room: 04.029, Floor: 04
Contact
Research Interests
- Probabilistic trajectory planning for autonomous operation in uncertain and dynamic environments
- Methodologies for system analysis and safety assurance of AI systems, agnostic to approaches , architectures, or application domains
- Trustworthy integration of AI into safety-critical and adaptive autonomous systems, enhancing performance while preserving reliability and robustness
- Design and analysis of system stacks to enable higher levels of autonomy
- Frameworks for the development and deployment of autonomous systems across diverse environments, technical setups, and operational constraints
Biography
| since 10/2025 | Post-doc, Chair of Automatic Control, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen |
| since 01/2025 | Vice-Chair, IEEE ITSS German Chapter, Berlin |
| 05/2022-09/2025 | Research Assistant, Chair of Automatic Control, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen |
| 02/2021-02/2022 | Student Research Assistant, Fraunhofer IIS, Nuremberg |
| 06/2020-03/2021 | Student Assistant, S-Outreach, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen |
| 07/2016-09/2019 | Cooperative Student, WIKA Alexander Wiegand SE & Co. KG, Klingenberg am Main |
Education
| 10/2022-09/2025 | PhD (Dr.-Ing.), FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen |
| 10/2019-02/2022 | M.Sc. Mechatronics, FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen |
| 09/2020-07/2021 | Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems Program, Aalto-University, Helsinki |
| 07/2016-09/2019 | B.Eng. Mechatronics, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Mosbach |
| 03/2019-06/2019 | International Program in Engineering, Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, Mosbach |
| 07/2018 | Fulbright Intercultural Communication Program, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta |
Publications
2026
- Ullrich, L., Buchholz, M., Dietmayer, K., & Graichen, K. (2026). Toward Fully Autonomous Driving: AI, Challenges, Opportunities, and Needs. IEEE Access. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3659192
2025
- Ullrich, L., Buchholz, M., Dietmayer, K., & Graichen, K. (2025). AI safety assurance for automated vehicles: A survey on research, standardization, regulation. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 10(10), 4784-4803. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIV.2024.3496797
- Ullrich, L., Buchholz, M., Dietmayer, K., & Graichen, K. (2025). Expanding the Classical V-Model for the Development of Complex Systems Incorporating AI. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 10(3), 1790-1804. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIV.2024.3434515
- Ullrich, L., Buchholz, M., Petit, J., Dietmayer, K., & Graichen, K. (2025). A Concept for Efficient Scalability of Automated Driving Allowing for Technical, Legal, Cultural, and Ethical Differences. In Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE 28th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC). Gold Coast (Australia).
- Ullrich, L., Mujirishvili, Z., & Graichen, K. (2025). Enhancing system self-awareness and trust of AI: A case study in trajectory prediction and planning. In Proceedings of the 36th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IEEE IV 2025). Cluj-Napoca (Romania).
- Ullrich, L., Zimmer, W., Greer, R., Graichen, K., Knoll, A.C., & Trivedi, M. (2025). A New Perspective On AI Safety Through Control Theory Methodologies. IEEE Open Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 6, 938-966. https://doi.org/10.1109/OJITS.2025.3585274
2024
- Rabenstein, G., Ullrich, L., & Graichen, K. (2024). Sampling for model predictive trajectory planning in autonomous driving using normalizing flows. In Proc. 35th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IEEE IV 2024) (pp. 2091-2096). Jeju Island (Korea).
- Ullrich, L., McMaster, A., & Graichen, K. (2024). Transfer learning study of motion transformer based trajectory predictions. In Proc. 35th IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IEEE IV 2024) (pp. 110-117). Jeju Island (Korea).
2023
- Ullrich, L., Völz, A., & Graichen, K. (2023). Robust meta-learning of vehicle yaw rate dynamics via conditional neural processes. In Proc. 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) (pp. 322-327). Marina Bay Sands (Singapore).
Open theses
If you are interested in working with me, please send your CV, transcript, and a brief explanation of why you want to join and what you hope to accomplish.
- Trajectory Planning in Autonomous Driving
Current and completed theses
- RoboRacer: Join the Future of Autonomous Racing
- A Comparative Analysis of Risk Metrics for Risk-Aware Motion Planning with a Model Predictive Path Integral Controller (MA)
- Scenario-Based Validation of Automated Driving Systems Using Large Language Models and Optimization Techniques (MA)
- Investigation of AI-empowered trajectory planning to increase trustworthiness (PP)
- Safety Assurance for Meta-Learning in Autonomous Driving (HiWi)
- Investigation of the transferability of data-driven prediction models of other traffic participants in the field of highly automated driving (MA)
- Implementation and integration of data-driven prediction models of other traffic participants into an existing software stack (HiWi)
- Implementation and evaluation of data-driven motion prediction models of dynamic road traffic objects for autonomous driving (FP)
- Investigation of neuromorphic computing for model predictive control with emphasis on trajectory optimization (HiWi)
- Investigating the capabilities of stochastic normalizing flows for trajectory planning in autonomous driving (MA)
- Modeling and evaluation of vehicle models using state of the art simulation software (HiWi)