Engineering
Aude Billard
Roboticist, specialist in robots that learn from people
Born 1971
Photo: EPFL-MEDIACOM · CC BY 4.0
Aude Billard works on robots that learn tasks by watching a person do them, rather than being programmed line by line. Her laboratory builds machines that can catch thrown objects and assist people with disabilities.
Key achievements
- Heads EPFL's Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory
- Pioneer of robots that learn skills by imitating people
Universities
Lausanne, on Lake Geneva
Professor and head of the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory, having taken her first degrees at EPFL.
Edinburgh, Scotland
Took her PhD in artificial intelligence in 1998.
Facts
- Her robots can catch a thrown tennis racket or bottle in under half a second by predicting its trajectory mid-flight.
- She has led European research programmes on how robots and people can safely share a workspace.
- She was president of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, the field's main professional body.