Link to research website

Johann Laconte made his debut in research by interacting with the Northern Robotics Laboratory during his studies in computer engineering at Clermont Auvergne University, working on the modeling of lidar sensors. He got his Engineering degree from this university in 2018, along a Master’s degree in robotics. He completed his Ph.D. at Institut Pascal (France) and Laval University (Canada) in 2021 during which he participated in several robotic deployments in unstructured environments, including subarctic forests. This work was awarded the second prize for the best french Ph.D. thesis in robotics. After a six-month postdoc at the Northern Robotics Laboratory (Norlab), he continued his research at the University of Toronto in Mobile Robotics (ASRL).

Since October 2023, he is the recipient of a junior research chair in the robotics department of the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE).

His research interests focus on mobile robotics and the interactions between the robot and deformable, ever-changing environments.

Education

• Postdoc (Robotics) - University of Toronto, 2023
• Postdoc (Field Robotics) - Université Laval, 2022
• Ph.D. in Robotics - Clermont Auvergne University, 2021
• M.Sc. in Robotics - Clermont Auvergne University, 2018
• Engineering Degree in Computer Science and Modeling - ISIMA, 2018

Prix et Distinctions

• Prix Relève étoile Louis-Berlinguet, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies (FRQNT)
  • Pour le papier "Kilometer-scale autonomous navigation in subarctic forests: challenges and lessons learned.", Baril et al., Field Robotics, 2021
• Best PhD (2nd), GdR Robotique
  • Pour la thèse "Lambda-Field : a novel framework for risk assessment in occupancy grids", Johann Laconte, 2021
• Best Robotics Paper, Conference on Robots and Vision (CRV)
  • Pour le papier  “Evaluation of Skid-Steering Kinematic Models for Subarctic Environments”, Baril et al., CRV, 2020
• Best Student Paper Nomination, International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV)
  • Pour le papier "An Information Driven Approach For Ego-Lane Detection Using Lidar And OpenStreetMap", Kasmi et al., ICARCV, 2020

Scientific Services

• Co-organizer of the Field Robotics Workshop at ICRA
• Associate Editor for IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
• Regular reviewer for international journals and conferences (e.g., ICRA, IROS, RA-L)

Publications

Google scholar