Universal Robots

Earned degrees in computer science, physics, and multimedia from Aarhus University and a Ph.D. in robotics from the University of Southern Denmark in 2004, where he researched AI, biologically inspired modular robots, and multi-robot coordination. He also conducted DARPA-funded multi-robot research at USC. While studying how to automate food-industry processes in 2003, he realized the world needed lightweight, affordable, easy-to-program industrial robots. He co-founded Universal Robots in Odense in 2005 and served as CTO until 2019, receiving the automation industry's highest honor, the Engelberger Robotics Award.

Holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science and Physics from Aarhus University (1999) and a Ph.D. in Computer System Engineering from the University of Southern Denmark (2003), where he met his Universal Robots co-founders. His research specialty is distributed control of multi-robot systems and modular, self-reconfigurable robotics, with 60+ peer-reviewed papers and the MIT Press book 'Self-Reconfigurable Robots: An Introduction.' After co-founding Universal Robots in 2005, he continued an academic career at the IT University of Copenhagen and co-founded Flow Robotics.

Met Esben Østergaard and Kasper Støy at the University of Southern Denmark, where the trio developed early cobot prototypes. At Universal Robots, Kassow led mechanical arm development and managed the programming team until he departed after about four years due to differences in development vision. He subsequently led engineering at NKT Flexibles in oil and gas and managed the humanoid Romeo project at SoftBank Robotics before co-founding Kassow Robots in 2014, a company specializing in high-torque seven-axis collaborative robots for small and medium enterprises.