Zühlke studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, worked and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in 1983 at the Machine Tools Laboratory (WZL) at Aachen’s university, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule in robot programming.
In 1985, he joined German Lufthansa AG. There, he was most recently head responsible of the aircraft maintenance branche. Since 1991, Zühlke is holder of the chair of Production Automation (pak) at the Technical University Kaiserslautern. There, he founded the Center for Human-Machine-Interaction (ZMMI) in 1998 which provides research and services in the area of the design of human-machine-systems for industrial applications.
Since 2009, he is heading the research area of Innovative Factory Systems at the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH. Zühlke is the main initiator of the technology initiative SmartFactory KL e.V. – the intelligent factory of the future - which was founded in 2005 with well-known partners from industry and science.
In the first manufacturer-independent, European demonstration factory, technical infrastructures of everyday life and ideas from practical experience are explored and latest Information and communications technology technology is transferred into automation. The transfer of the principle of the "Internet of Things" into factory environment is the main effort for every of his research areas, this means the "Factory of Things".
1998: Chair of Production Systems at Ruhr University Bochum (declined)
2002: Leader of the Fraunhofer Institute for Information and Data Processing IITB in Karlsruhe in conjunction with a professorship for Interactive Realtime Systems at the University Karlsruhe (declined)
2002 - 2008: Chairman of the International Federation of Automatic Control - The International Federation of Automatic Control TC 4.5 on Human-Machine-Systems
Chairman of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure/Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker-Global Media Arts Focusproject "Ambient Intelligence in Automation"
Scientific coordinator of the USEWARE congress series.
1983: Borchers Medal of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen for an outstanding performance in his Doctor of Philosophy thesis 2005: Association of German Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure) – Medal of Honour for his merits in Verein Deutscher Ingenieure/Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker-Society Measurement and Automatic Control (Global Media Arts) 2011: The International Federation of Automatic Control Outstanding Service Award 2013: Foreign his outstanding scientific work in the field of industrial automation, he was awarded with a doctor honoris causa by the Hermann-Oberth-Faculty of the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ULBS).
Chairman of the The International Federation of Automatic Control Central Committee 4 on Mechatronics, Robotics and Components and member of the The International Federation of Automatic Control Technical Board.
