Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Birkner

+49 841 9348-3404

Christian.Birkner@thi.de

Room: A112

Subject Area: Test methods in Vehicle Safety

Faculty: Fakultät E

Research

Test methods and high-performance functions in integral vehicle safety
Actuator technology in integral vehicle safety
Vehicle systems and novel control systems
Networking of simulation and stimulation in real driving tests
Test methods for battery vehicles

Vita

Since 2017 at THI
08/2015 - 06/2017: Head of Powertrain Development at MAHLE Powertrain GmbH, Aschheim
06/2008 - 07/2015: Head of Department Transmission and Hybrid Systems at IAV GmbH, Munich, Ingolstadt
03/1995 - 06/2008: Development of diesel systems at SiemensVDO Automotive in various positions
1995: Graduation as Dr.-Ing.
05/1990 - 12/1994: Doctorate "Investigation of the suitability of vegetable oils as fuel for diesel engines and presentation of a new vegetable oil engine concept"; research assistant at the Chair of Power and Working Machines, TU Kaiserslautern
10/1987 - 04/1990: Study of mechanical engineering, specialising in power and work machines at TU in Kaiserslautern
10/1983 - 09/1987: Study of mechanical engineering at TU in Clausthal Zellerfeld

Publications

Here you can find a complete list of publications of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Birkner.

Publications

2026

BIRKNER, Christian, 2026. Accompanying Expertise on the Roadworthiness Package. Brüssel: European Parliament, Policy Department for Transport, Employement and Social Affairs. ISBN 978-92-848-3556-0. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2861/3170470

WEIHMAYR, Daniel, Tobias NEUMEIER, Christian BIRKNER, Hormoz MARZBANI und Reza Nakhaie JAZAR, 2026. Active Safety: Decision-Making Using Potential Fields for Path-Following in Autonomous Driving. IEEE Access, 14, 82558-82574. ISSN 2169-3536. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3697832

TOLKSDORF, Leon, Arturo TEJADA, Christian BIRKNER und Nathan VAN DE WOUW, 2026. Considering Perspectives for Automated Driving Ethics: Collective Risk in Vehicular Motion Planning [Preprint]. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.22940

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Steffen MÜLLER, Christian BIRKNER, Reza JAZAR und Hormoz MARZBANI, 2026. Fault Tolerant Control With Reinforcement Learning for Evasive Maneuvers Using a Scaled Vehicle. IEEE Access, 14, 21353-21383. ISSN 2169-3536. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3661179

KERN, Tobias und Christian BIRKNER, 2026. MoCCA: A Movable Circle Probability of Collision Approximation [Preprint]. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.13125

TOLKSDORF, Leon, Arturo TEJADA, Jonas BAUERNFEIND, Christian BIRKNER und Nathan VAN DE WOUW, 2026. Risk Estimation for Automated Driving [Preprint]. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.15018

2025

NIETO, Marcos, Oihana OTAEGUI, Maria PANOU, Christian BIRKNER, Ondřej VACULÍN und Ariadna RODRÍGUEZ, 2025. AWARE2ALL: Human Centric Interaction and Safety Systems for Increasing the Share of Automated Vehicles. In: MCNALLY, Ciaran, Páraic CARROLL, Beatriz MARTINEZ-PASTOR, Bidisha GHOSH, Marina EFTHYMIOU und Nikolaos VALANTASIS-KANELLOS, Editors Transport Transitions: Advancing Sustainable and Inclusive Mobility, Proceedings of the 10th TRA Conference, 2024, Dublin, Ireland-Volume 1: Safe and Equitable Transport. Cham: Springer, Page 779-785. ISBN 978-3-031-88974-5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-88974-5_112

TOLKSDORF, Leon, Arturo TEJADA, Christian BIRKNER und Nathan VAN DE WOUW, 2025. Collision Probability Estimation for Optimization-based Vehicular Motion Planning [Preprint]. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2505.21161

KERN, Tobias, Leon TOLKSDORF und Christian BIRKNER, 2025. Comparison of Localization Algorithms between Reduced-Scale and Real-Sized Vehicles Using Visual and Inertial Sensors [Preprint]. arXiv. Available at: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.11241

WEIHMAYR, Daniel, Christian BIRKNER, Hormoz MARZBANI und Reza JAZAR, 2025. Data-Driven Vehicle Dynamics: Lever-Aging SINDy for Optimization-Based Vehicular Motion Planning. IEEE Access, 13, 136584-136597. ISSN 2169-3536. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3594892

ROZEK, Lukas, Andrew HARRISON und Christian BIRKNER, 2025. Influence of Autonomous Vehicle Interior Design on Occupant Injuries. 2025 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV). Piscataway: IEEE, Page 1517-1522. ISBN 979-8-3315-3803-3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/IV64158.2025.11097519

2024

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Christian BIRKNER, Reza JAZAR und Hormoz MARZBANI, 2024. Crash-Prone Fault Combination Identification for Over-Actuated Vehicles During Evasive Maneuvers. IEEE Access, 12, 37256-37275. ISSN 2169-3536. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3374524

TOLKSDORF, Leon, Christian BIRKNER, Arturo TEJADA und Nathan VAN DE WOUW, 2024. Fast Collision Probability Estimation for Automated Driving using Multi-circular Shape Approximations. 2024 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV). Piscataway: IEEE, Page 2529-2536. ISBN 979-8-3503-4881-1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/IV55156.2024.10588731

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Christian BIRKNER, Reza JAZAR und Hormoz MARZBANI, 2024. From Design to Application: Emergency Maneuver Control in a 1:3.33 Scaled Vehicle. 2024 18th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV). Piscataway: IEEE, Page 170-177. ISBN 979-8-3315-1849-3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICARCV63323.2024.10821589

WEIHMAYR, Daniel, Fatih SEZGIN, Leon TOLKSDORF, Christian BIRKNER und Reza JAZAR, 2024. Predicting the Influence of Adverse Weather on Pedestrian Detection with Automotive Radar and Lidar Sensors. 2024 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV). Piscataway: IEEE, Page 2591-2597. ISBN 979-8-3503-4881-1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/IV55156.2024.10588472

2023

SHIRUR, Naveen, Christian BIRKNER, Matthias BLEECK, Andreas FORSTER, Thomas Martin DESERNO und Roman HENZE, 2023. 3D simulations and laboratory experiments to evaluate a dynamic airbag valve. International Journal of Crashworthiness, 29(2), 378-388. ISSN 1754-2111. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13588265.2023.2252214

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Christian BIRKNER, Reza JAZAR und Hormoz MARZBANI, 2023. Coupled Lateral and Longitudinal Controller for Over-Actuated Vehicle in Evasive Maneuvering with Sliding Mode Control Strategy. IEEE Access, 11, 33792-33811. ISSN 2169-3536. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3264277

TOLKSDORF, Leon, Arturo TEJADA, Nathan VAN DE WOUW und Christian BIRKNER, 2023. Risk in Stochastic and Robust Model Predictive Path-Following Control for Vehicular Motion Planning. IEEE IV 2023: Symposium Proceedings. Piscataway: IEEE. ISBN 979-8-3503-4691-6. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/IV55152.2023.10186708

2022

SHIRUR, Naveen, Christian BIRKNER, Andreas FOSTER und Matthias BLEECK, 2022. Active control of airbag filling: sensor, valve, test bench, best-practice of industry-university-cooperation. Fahrzeugsicherheit 2022: Auf dem Weg zur Fahrzeugsicherheit 2030. Düsseldorf: VDI-Verlag, Page 35-46. ISBN 978-3-18-092387-1. Available at: https://doi.org/10.51202/9783181023877-35

SHIRUR, Naveen, Christian BIRKNER, Andreas FORSTER, Thomas Martin DESERNO und Roman HENZE, 2022. Smart airbag: an innovative adaptive airbag considering out-of-position (OOP) for restraint effect optimization and injury mitigation. 15th International Symposium and Exhibition on Sophisticated Car Safety Systems. Pfinztal: Fraunhofer ICT. Available at: https://publica.fraunhofer.de/entities/publication/c890596b-4b7e-4406-a5f6-d2b5e588f2e7/details

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Christian BIRKNER, Reza JAZAR und Hormoz MARZBANI, 2022. Vehicle lateral dynamics with sliding mode control strategy for evasive maneuvering. In: MEHDI, Driss, Mondher FARZA, Mohammed M'SAAD und Abdelouahab AITOUCHE, Editors Proceedings of the 2021 9th International Conference on Systems and Control. Piscataway: IEEE, Page 165-172. ISBN 978-1-6654-0782-3. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSC50472.2021.9666598

2021

MENSA, Genís, Peter WIMMER, Lars SCHORIES, András BÁLINT, Tamara DJUKIC, Martin ÖSTLING, Christian LOEFFLER, Stella NIKOLAOU, Sergio RIAL, David MERDIVAN, Christian BIRKNER, Daniel WEIHMAYR und Stefan KIRSCHBICHLER, 2021. D5.1 Requirements for impact assessment.

BÁLINT, András, Ron SCHINDLER, Christian LOEFFLER, Peter WIMMER, Stefan KIRSCHBICHLER, Harald KOLK, Christoph KLEIN, Lars SCHORIES, Julian HAY, Julian BECKER, Christian BIRKNER, Joed LOPES DA SILVA, Alessandro ZIMMER, Genís MENSA, Núria PARERA, Simona ROKOVA, Jacint CASTELLS, Jorge LORENTE MALLADA, Stella NIKOLAOU, Carina VOGL und Johann STOLL, 2021. D5.2 Safety impact assessment - intermediate report. Available at: https://www.safe-up.eu/resources

SHIRUR, Naveen, Christian BIRKNER, Roman HENZE, Thomas Martin DESERNO und Darshankumar DUDHAT, 2021. Effect of airbag deployment phases on tactile occupant detection sensor. 2020 XII International Science-Technical Conference AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY. Piscataway: IEEE. ISBN 978-1-7281-5812-9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/AUTOMOTIVESAFETY47494.2020.9435283

SHIRUR, Naveen, Christian BIRKNER, Roman HENZE und Thomas Martin DESERNO, 2021. Tactile Occupant Detection Sensor for Automotive Airbag. Energies, 14(17), 5288. ISSN 1996-1073. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175288

2020

DA SILVA JUNIOR, Amauri, Christian BIRKNER und Naveen SHIRUR, 2020. Development of Lateral Control for Different Electric Vehicle Drive and Steering Systems. FISITA Web Congress 2020. Bishops Stortford: FISITA. Available at: https://www.fisita.com/library/f2020-vdc-075