Robotics Institute Seminar: Francois Pomerleau (Laval University)

Autonomous driving on snow and ice

Abstract

As the promise of autonomous cars keeps being delayed, more and more questions are raised about the accessibility of this technology in remote locations. Moreover, extreme meteorological events are on the rise with the concretization of climate change. This new reality stresses the importance of the robustness of navigation algorithms against harsh environmental conditions. In an era of simulations and augmented datasets, this presentation will focus on our efforts in facing complex research questions through field robotics. Field robotics is a sub-community of researchers challenging theoretical simplifications with experimental work closer to real applications. We will give an overview of our latest scientific results with an emphasis on lessons learned related to lidar-based mapping and navigation in subarctic conditions.

Speaker bio

François Pomerleau, Senior Member IEEE, received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2013 and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) in 2009.He has been a professor at Université Laval since 2017, where he is the Director of the Northern Robotics Laboratory. His research interests include 3D reconstruction of environments using laser data, autonomous navigation, search and rescue activities, environmental monitoring, trajectory planning, and scientific methodology applied to robotics. Prof. Pomerleau is the holder of the Canada Research Chair in Field Robotics, a professional Member of the Order of Engineering of Quebec (OIQ), a member of the Research Center of robotics, vision, and artificial intelligence (CeRVIM), a member of the Strategic Center of distributed intelligent and shared environments (REPARTI), and a board member of the Canadian Robotics Council and chair of its Research and Training Committee.