Francesco Mondada Explained

Francesco Mondada
Birth Place:	Locarno, Switzerland
Citizenship:	Switzerland
Nationality:	Swiss
Fields:	Robotics, Computer Science
Workplaces:	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Alma Mater:	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Known For:	Khepera mobile robot, E-puck mobile robot, Thymio
Awards:	Latsis Foundation University Prize, Credit Suisse Best Teaching Award

Francesco Mondada (born 17 March 1967) is a Swiss professor^[1] in artificial intelligence and robotics. He got a Master's degree in Microengineering at the EPFL in 1991 and a PhD degree in 1997. He is one of the creators of the Khepera and directed the design of the S-bot, the e-puck, the marXbot and the Thymio mobile robots. Together, these robots are mentioned in more than 9000 research articles.^[2] In particular the Khepera robot^[3] is a milestone in the field of bio-inspired and evolutionary robotics.

He was one of the founders and director of K-team SA from its creation 1995 to 2000,^[4] and one of the founders of Calerga Sarl in 2001^[5] and Mobsya in 2010.^[6]

His recent work concerns collective robotics and education.

Awards and honours

• University Latsis^[7]
• Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching.^[8]
• 2012 Polysphère, award for the best professor from the School of Engineering at EPFL given by the students.^[9]
• Member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW)^[10]
• Several best poster/paper/demo awards, for instance the Best Paper Award Design at the HRI 2017 conference.

Selected publications

• F. Mondada, M. Bonani, F. Riedo, M. Briod, L. Pereyre, P. Retornaz, S. Magnenat. Bringing Robotics to Formal Education: The Thymio Open-Source Hardware Robot. IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 77–85, March 2017. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7859350/
• J. Halloy, G. Sempo, G. Caprari, C. Rivault, M. Asadpour, F. Tache, I. Said, V. Durier, S. Canonge, J. Ame, C. Detrain, N. Correll, A. Martinoli, F. Mondada, R. Siegwart, and J.-L. Deneubourg. Social Integration of Robots into Groups of Cockroaches to Control Self-Organized Choices. Science, 318(5853):1155-1158, 2007. http://infoscience.epfl.ch/getfile.py?recid=114099&mode=best

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/318/5853/1155

• F. Mondada, G. C. Pettinaro, A. Guignard, I. Kwee, D. Floreano, J.-L. Deneubourg, S. Nolfi, L. Gambardella, and M. Dorigo. SWARM-BOT: a New Distributed Robotic Concept. Autonomous Robots, special Issue on Swarm Robotics, 17(2-3):193-221, 2004. September - November 2004 Sponsor: swarm-bots, OFES 01-0012-1. http://infoscience.epfl.ch/getfile.py?recid=63979&mode=best
• D. Floreano and F. Mondada. Evolution of Homing Navigation in a Real Mobile Robot. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Part B : Cybernetics, 26(3):396-407, 1996. http://infoscience.epfl.ch/getfile.py?docid=7184&name=floreano&format=IEEE-SMC.pdf&version=1
• F. Mondada, E. Franzi, P. Ienne, T. Yoshikawa, and F. Miyazaki. Mobile Robot Miniaturization: A Tool for Investigation in Control Algorithms. In Experimental Robotics III, volume 200 of Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, pages 501-13. Springer, London, 1994.

External links

• Professional homepage with a list of publications (Google scholar)
• Mobots group homepage of the research group of F. Mondada
• Personal homepage

Notes and References

1. http://www.ethrat.ch/en/section-medien-medienmitteilungen/14-new-professors-at-the-federal-institutes-technology Press Release of the ETH Board, about the nomination of professors on May 24, 2013
2. https://scholar.google.ch/scholar?hl=en&q=%28khepera+OR+thymio+OR+epuck+OR+e-puck+OR+s-bot+OR+marxbot%29+AND+robot&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp= List of scientific papers mentioning the Khepera, the S-bot, the e-puck, the marXbot or the Thymio robots.
3. https://scholar.google.ch/scholar?q=Mobile+robot+miniaturisation%3A+A+tool+for+investigation+in+control+algorithms&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5 Main paper describing the Khepera robot and the approach of robot miniaturization for research
4. http://www.rc2.vd.ch/registres/hrcintapp-pub/externalCompanyReport.action?companyOfsUid=CHE-104.235.442&lang=EN Official Trade and Companies Register of Canton de Vaud, data about K-Team SA, see cancellations for the history
5. http://www.rc2.vd.ch/registres/hrcintapp-pub/externalCompanyReport.action?companyOfsUid=CHE-109.424.631&lang=EN Official Trade and Companies Register of Canton de Vaud, data about Calerga SàrL
6. http://www.rc2.vd.ch/registres/hrcintapp-pub/externalCompanyReport.action?companyOfsUid=CHE-115.504.706&lang=EN Official Trade and Companies Register of Canton de Vaud, data about Mobsya Association, see cancellations for the history
7. http://www.fondationlatsis.org/p_epfl.php?nav&smenu=smenu1 List of Latsis prizes given to the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
8. Web site: List of Credit Suisse Award for Best Teaching laureates at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne . 2013-08-04 . 2014-06-17 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140617145744/http://decanat-bama.epfl.ch/page-63312-en.html . dead .
9. https://agepoly.ch/polyspheres/archive/ List of the professors who received the EPFL Polysphère award
10. http://www.satw.ch/en/ueber-satw/members/ List of members of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW)