Bio

I am professor in the Computer Science and System Engineering Laboratory (U2IS) at ENSTA Paris and the scientific director of the IP Paris Interdisciplinary Center for Defense and Security (CIEDS).

My research focuses on robotics and more particularly on perception and learning problems. I am looking to develop methods to simplify and make more robust the use of robots and to increase their autonomy. I am particularly interested in:

  • navigation, mapping, localization, path planning,
  • learning applied to multi-modal perception and reinforcement learning,
  • applications to mobile robots, UAVs and autonomous vehicles.

Positions:

  • 2021 - …: Scientific director of CIEDS
  • 2018 - 2021: Director of the Computer Science and System Engineering Laboratory
  • 2011 - …: Professor at ENSTA Paris
  • 2009 - 2024: Member of the INRIA FLOWERS team
  • 2005 - 2011: Associate professor at ENSTA Paris
  • 2001 - 2005: Expert in robotics for Délégation Générale pour l’Armement at Centre d’Expertise Parisien
Interests
  • Mobile robotics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Vision
  • Machine Learning
Education
  • Habilitation a diriger des recherches, 2011

    University Pierre et Marie Curie

  • PhD in Mobile Robotics, 2001

    University Pierre et Marie Curie

  • Master degree in Artificial Intelligence, 1998

    University Pierre et Marie Curie

  • Engineering degree, 1997 (X94)

    Ecole Polytechnique

Teaching

Responsibilities

ENSTA Paris - Robotics track

I am co-responsible for the robotics and Intelligent Autonomous Systems track in third year at ENSTA Paris: Description of the track

Teaching

I teach the entire CSC_54456_EP course and I teach the other courses with colleagues from ENSTA Paris, Ecole Polytechnique and ONERA.

IP Paris - Master DATAAI - et Ecole Polytechnique - MScT AIAVC - CSC_54456_EP

Drones and robots need to create maps of their environment in order to plan their movements and navigate. This course introduces the most common robotic platforms and sensors (vision, Lidar, intertia units, odometry, etc.) and the various components of navigation: control; obstacle avoidance; localization; mapping (SLAM) and trajectory planning, as well as the filtering (Kalman filter, particle filtering, etc.) and optimization techniques used in these fields.

ENSTA Paris - CSC_5RO12_TA

Ce cours présente une vue d’ensemble des capteurs, des représentations et des différentes méthodes de filtrage (filtre de Kalman, filtre particulaire) et des techniques d’optimisation utilisées pour la localisation et la cartographie (SLAM) en robotique mobile et pour les véhicules autonomes.

Planification et contrôle

ENSTA Paris - CSC_5RO16_TA

Ce cours présente les plateformes et une vue d’ensemble des méthodes de contrôle, de planification de trajectoire et de planification de tâches utilisées en robotique et pour les véhicules autonomes.

Apprentissage profond pour la vision par ordinateur

ENSTA Paris - CSC_5RO13_TA

Ce cours présente les principes et les techniques de vision par ordinateur utilisés dans le domaine de la robotique.

Research

Current students and collaborations

  • Louis Dezons (PhD 2024-…, AMIAD Funding): Large Multimodal Models for offroad autonomous navigation. Co-supervised with François Goulette and Michael Krajecki
  • Guillaume Thomas (PhD 2024-…, CEA Funding): Learning fine and dexterous manipulation through vision and kinesthetic observations. Collaboration, supervised by Mathieu Grossard Quoc Cuong Pham and Jaonary Rabarisoa.
  • Mathilde Jeannin (PhD 2023-…, FARO project): Guaranteed algorithms for mobile robotics. Collaboration, supervised by Eric Goubault and Sylvie Putot.
  • Marwane Hariat (PhD 2022-…, FARO project): Self-supervised depth estimation for robot navigation. Collaboration, supervised by Antoine Manzanera.
  • Ivelina Stoyanova (PhD 2022-…, funding THALES): Characterization of a Markov decision process in a partially observable, incremental and event-driven environment for reinforcement learning using a decision policy based on temporal rules. Co-supervised with Sao Mai Nguyen and Nicolas Museux.
  • Adrien Lafage (PhD 2022-…, funding Renault): Comprehensive intermediate and long-term driving risk prediction with Deep Neural Networks. Co-supervised with Gianni Franchi and Mathieu Barbier.
  • Tom Dupuis (PhD 2021-…, funding CEA): Reinforcement learning and representation learning for visuomotor control. Co-supervised with Jaonary Rabarisoa and Quoc Cuong Pham.
  • Kai Zhang (PhD 2021-…, funding CEA): Model of the situation and task planning of a mobile manipulator in an uncertain logistical environment. Co-supervised with Julien Alexandre Dit Sandretto, Eric Lucet, Selma Kchir.

Projects

  • ANR MOBILEX TAURUS (2023-2027): Participation in the MOBILEX challenge on navigation in unstructured environments. Led by Alexandre Chapoutot, in collaboration with EXAIL Robotics.
  • ANR ASTRID Nimble x ENSTA (2023-2024): Extending the Aru robot’s autonomous outdoor navigation capabilities through traversability prediction - Collaboration with Nimble One
  • AID FARO (2021-2025): The FARO project focuses on the development of new algorithms (model and/or data driven) and new validation methods to ensure the proper functioning of swarm drones, on land, in the air or at sea - Collaboration with Telecom Paris and Ecole Polytechnique

Former students

Former Projects

  • H2020 VeriDREAM (2020-2022) The VeriDREAM project (VERtical Innovation in the Domain of Robotics Enabled by Artificial intelligence Mandhods) is a European project with the objective of developing industrial applications following the H2020 DREAM and RobDREAM projects.

  • PIA EVAPS (2016-2020) The objective of the EVAPS project (Eco mobility by Autonomous Vehicles in the Paris-Saclay region) is to develop intelligent mobility services for peri-urban journeys, in autonomous driving, without driver. We have developed trajectory planning and tele-operation algorithms for remote vehicle handover.

  • ITEA3 DANGUN (2016-2019) Project on the development of an autonomous vehicle in which we have developed a remote operation capacity for these vehicles.

  • H2020 DREAM (2015-2018) The DREAM project (Deferred Restructuring of Experience in Autonomous Machines) is a European project focusing on the development of processes inspired by sleep and dreams in a cognitive architecture for robotics. We have developed state representation learning approaches for reinforcement learning.

  • PSPC ROMEO 2 (2012-2017) The ROMEO 2 project carried by Aldebaran Robotics in which we have developed object dandection mandhods by RGB-D camera and semantic mapping mandhods.

  • FUI ROBOT POPULI (2012-2014) Project with the company Awabot in which we have developed a robust visual navigation algorithm for service robotics.

  • ANR MACSi (2010-2014) The MACSi project focuses on the development of social and developmental learning capacities for perception on an iCub robot.

  • ANR PACOM (2009-2012) The PACOM project concerns the development of exploration mandhods and semantic mapping within the framework of the “Carrote” compandition organized by the ANR and the DGA.

Publications

All my publications, including preprints are available on my google scholar page

Publications accepted at workshops, conferences or journals (from HAL):

Contact