Hello, my name is Mehmet Can YILDIRIM. I’m a mechanical engineer who primarily designs, builds, and develops hardware for robots. On this small website, you can reach my professional accounts, as well as you can check my published work.

I’m currently a Research Associate at the Chair of Robotics and System Intelligence at the Technical University of Munich. Also, I’m currently serving as the Manager of the Mechatronics Assembly, Integration, and Testing Laboratory of the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence.

Short Bio

I was born in Merzifon/Turkey in 1993. I attended Inanc High School in 2007, where I founded a robotics club with my four classmates, IMC. So, with that, my journey started. In 2016, as a freshman undergrad, I started to work at Ozyegin University Robotics Lab., in this lab, I participated in two different medical robotics projects. After I graduated, I became a part of Ozyegin University Biomechatronics Lab. with the research project titled “Development and Control of Upper Body Exoskeleton Robot with High Torque Gained Series Elastic Actuator” in which I worked on the designs of actuation units, passive elements, and the exoskeleton. My experience with this project led me to consider the issues surrounding the repetitive use of robots and the emerging topic of soft components. I worked on similar units and elements for another project titled “Development of Series Elastic Actuated Self-Balancing Lower Body Exoskeleton for 3D Walking Support.” The core elements of this project eventually became the body of my MSc thesis. In February 2019, I got my MSc degree.

Selected Publications

• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Dennis Ossadnik, Vasilije Rakcevic, Kangwagye Samuel, Abdalla Swikir, Valentin Le Mesle, Sami Haddadin, IBSA Joint: A Fully Integrated Bi-Stiffness Actuator Joint for Precise Energy Transfer Timing in Explosive Motion Tasks, 2025. [Project Page]
• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Dee Hva Choong, Johannes Ringwald, Robin Jeanne Kirschner, Valentin Le Mesle, Sami Haddadin, Investigating the Fitness of Finger Grippers for Dynamic Tactile Manipulation Under Static Object Conditions, 2025. [Project Page]
• Vasilije Rakcevic, Dennis Ossadnik, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Valentin Le Mesle, Sami Haddadin, Braking Control in Clutched-Elastic Robots: Coordinating the Underactuation-to-Actuation Transition, 2025. [Project Page]
• Dennis Ossadnik, Vasilije Rakcevic, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, Optimal Control for Clutched-Elastic Robots: A Contact-Implicit Approach, 2024. [Project Page]
• Sebastian Kuhn, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Kübra Karacan, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, A Novel Variable Stiffness Suspension System for Improved Stability and Control of Tactile Mobile Manipulators, 2024. [Project Page]
• Edmundo Pozo Fortunic, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Dennis Ossadnik, Abdalla Swikir, Saeed Abdolshah, Sami Haddadin, Optimally Controlling the Timing of Energy Transfer in Elastic Joints: Experimental Validation of the Bi-Stiffness Actuation Concept, 2023. [Project Page]
• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Edgar Alejandro Pisano, Mazin Hamad, Valentin Le Mesle, Abdalla Swikir, Sami Haddadin, A Task-Aware Lightweight Link Design Framework for Robots Under Dynamic Loading, 2023. [Project Page]
• Mehmet Can Yildirim, Mohamadreza Sabaghian, Thore Goll, Clemens Kössler, Christoph Jähne, Abdalla Swikir, Andriy Sarabakha, Sami Haddadin, Development of a Collaborative Wheeled Mobile Robot: Design Considerations, Drive Unit Torque Control, and Preliminary Result, 2022. [Project Page]
• Dennis Ossadnik, Mehmet Can Yildirim, Fan Wu, Abdalla Swikir, Hugo T. M. Kussaba, Saeed Abdolshah, Sami Haddadin, BSA - Bi-Stiffness Actuation for optimally exploiting intrinsic compliance and inertial coupling effects in elastic joint robots, 2022. [Project Page]