Karsten Knese
Staff Software Engineer at Google
United States
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolKarsten Knese is a Staff Software Engineer specializing in robotics software with 12 years of experience spanning low-level sensor and actuator control to high-level AI and machine learning. He has driven production-ready ROS 2 improvements across core projects—rcl, rclcpp, tf2_ros and ros2cli—combining system architecture, API design and careful refactoring to modernize lifecycle and node interfaces. At companies from Bosch to Intrinsic and now Google, he has translated scientific approaches into robust product solutions for industrial and research robotics. His open-source contributions include foundational work on ros2_control and robot_state_publisher and practical demos that improved Gazebo integration and controller workflows. Known for clean code and pedantic attention to API stability, he often surfaces subtle compatibility issues early in migrations between ROS versions. He pairs academic depth from TUM and KAIST with a pragmatic engineering focus on maintainability and reproducible demos.
12 years of coding experience
12 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree Applied Computer Science, Bachelor's degree Applied Computer Science at Berufsakademie KarlsruheMaster's degree Robotics Cognition Intelligence, Master's degree Robotics Cognition Intelligence at Technical University of MunichMaster's degree Mechatronics Robotics and Automation Engineering, Master's degree Mechatronics Robotics and Automation Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
German, English, French, Spanish
Github Skills (39)
robotics10
c-language10
gazebosim10
controller10
package-management10
python10
apidoc10
api-design10
rc10
lifecycle10
testing10
command-line-interface10
cmake10
c1110
c1710
Programming languages (11)
Github contributions (5)
ros/diagnostics
Mar 2019 - Aug 2021
Packages related to gathering, viewing, and analyzing diagnostics data from robots.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:18 reviews, 59 commits, 65 PRs in 2 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Karsten Knese's commits primarily involved migrating and refactoring the C++ and Python APIs within the `ros/diagnostics` repository. The changes included updating the code to use modern C++ features, removing dependencies, and generally cleaning up the existing codebase. Furthermore, they undertook the migration and modernization of self-test infrastructure, indicating a focus on code quality, maintainability, and updating the codebase to support ROS2.
analyzinggatheringdiagnosticsrobotsmonitoring
ros2/rcl
Dec 2016 - Mar 2021
Library to support implementation of language specific ROS Client Libraries.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:6 reviews, 21 commits, 45 PRs in 4 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Karsten primarily focused on enhancing and refactoring the `rcl` library, specifically contributing to the `rcl_lifecycle` package. Their work included implementing lifecycle features, such as state machine management, and integrating them into the library's core functionality. Key contributions involved adding service interfaces and refining internal components for stability and robustness. The user was also involved in improving the testing suite for lifecycle-related features.
roboticsros2implementation-supportclient-librariesros
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