Francesco Mondada

Expertise Design of miniature mobile robots for:- Swarm robotics research- Animal-robot interaction- Cross-fertilization between robotics and art- Edutainment Mission My research and teaching activity is centered around the mechatronic design of miniature mobile robots. This type of systems is an excellent example of mechatronics and a very motivating subjects for EPFL students. Working on this type of systems in education allows to address problems in mechanical design, electronic design, software development, system integration, signal processing, embedded programming, artificial intelligence approaches and much more. From a research point of view, this type of system allows interdisciplinary research in mechanics, electronics, computer and communication science with very interesting connections to biology, psychology, design and art. This type of interdisciplinary system by its components and by its applications enables incredible new areas of research.For my mission in respect the school council please look to the French version of this page. Dr. Mondada received his M.Sc. in micro-engineering in 1991 and his Doctoral degree in 1997 at EPFL. During his thesis he co-founded the company K-Team, being both CEO and president of the company for about 5 years. He is one of the three main developers of the Khepera robot, considered as a standard in bio-inspired robotics and used by more than 1,000 universities and research centers worldwide. Fully back in research in 2000 and after a short period at CALTECH, he participated to the SWARM-BOTS project as the main developer of the s-bot robot platform, which was ranked on position 39 in the list of «The 50 Best Robots Ever» (fiction or real) by the Wired Journal in 2006. The SWARM-BOTS project was selected as FET-IST success story by the EU commission. He is author of more than 100 papers in the field of bio-inspired robotics and system level robot design. He is co-editor of several international conference proceedings. In November 2005 he received the EPFL Latsis University prize for his contributions to bio-inspired robotics. In 2011 he received the "Crédit Suisse Award for Best Teaching" from EPFL and in 2012 the "polysphère" award from the students as best teacher in the school of engineering. His interests include the development of innovative mechatronic solutions for mobile and modular robots, the creation of know-how for future embedded applications, and making robot platforms more accessible for education, research, and industrial development.Affiliation Francesco Mondada is leading the MOBOTS group. Teaching & PhD PhD Students Jérôme Brender, Valentina Ferraioli, Cyril Felix Monette, Manuel Bernal Lecina Past EPFL PhD Students Stéphane Magnenat, Michael Bonani, Frédéric Rochat, Alexey Gribovskiy, Patrick Schoeneich, Fanny Riedo, Florian Christopher Vaussard, Philippe Rétornaz, Frank Bonnet, Hadi Ardiny, Christian Giang, Morgane Chevalier, Laila El-Hamamsy, Vaios Papaspyros, Rafael Barmak Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Michael Bonani, Frédéric Rochat, Alexey Gribovskiy, Julia Fink Courses Basics of mobile robotics MICRO-452 This course gives an overview of the field of mobile robotics, introducing to the main techniques and allowing to test them in exercises and a team-based project. Embedded Systems and Robotics MICRO-315 This course deals with the programming of embedded systems: cross-compilation, the use of FPU in microcontrollers, the use of DSP instructions and the mechanisms available in a Real-time Operating System. The whole is implemented in a robotic context. JDPLS Summer school LEARN-701 Two-day Summer School , location TBD with JDPLS thesis directors and students. Students presente their recent research and take part in small-group discussions. Two keynote speakers will give presentations and join discussions with students. Robotics practicals MICRO-453 The goal of this lab series is to practice the various theoretical frameworks acquired in the courses on a variety of robots, ranging from industrial robots to autonomous mobile robots, to robotic devices, all the way to interactive robots. Topics in Autonomous Robotics ENG-615 Students will be introduced to modern approaches in control and design of autonomous robots through lectures and exercises. Awards Polytechnik-Preis Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaf 2022 Ehrenmedaille des ABZ der ETH Zürich ETHZ 2023 Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching Credit Suisse and EPFL 2011 Fondation Latsis Internationale Award Fondation Latsis Internationale 2005