Bio

I am professor in the Computer Science and System Engineering Laboratory (U2IS) at ENSTA Paris and a member of the INRIA/ENSTA Paris FLOWERS team on developmental robotics. I am also 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 - …: 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 INF657G course and I teach the other courses with colleagues from ENSTA Paris, Ecole Polytechnique and ONERA.

IP Paris - Master DATAAI - and Ecole Polytechnique - MScT AIAVC - X-INF657G

Drones and robots must create maps of their surroundings to plan their movement and navigate. This course presents the robotic platforms and the most common sensors (vision, Lidar, intertial units, odometry …) and the different components of navigation: control; obstacle avoidance; localization; mapping (SLAM) and trajectory planning as well as filtering (Kalman filter, particle filtering, etc.) and optimization techniques used in these fields.

ENSTA Paris - ROB312

This course presents an overview of sensors, representations and different filtering methods (Kalman filter, particle filtering) and optimization techniques used for localization and mapping (SLAM) in mobile robotics and for autonomous vehicles.

Planning and control

ENSTA Paris - ROB316

This course presents the platforms and an overview of the control, trajectory planning and task planning methods used in robotics and for autonomous vehicles.

Research

Current students

  • 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.
  • Gabriel Quere (PhD 2021-…, funding DLR) : Learning and designing shared control skills from demonstrations for assistive robots. Co-supervised with Freek Stulp.
  • 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.
  • Gwendal Priser (PhD 2021-…): Set propagation for Trustworthy Reinforcement Learning, co-supervised with Goran Frehse.
  • David Brellmann (PhD 2020-…): Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Systems safety. Co-supervised with Goran Frehse.

Projects

  • 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.

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