Jean-Baptiste Mouret
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire Lorrain de Recherche en Informatique et ses Applications, Université de Lorraine, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique, Larsen & Toubro (India), Centre Inria de l'Université de Lorraine
Papers
85
Total Citations
4,571
H-Index
31
About
Jean-Baptiste Mouret is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of evolutionary robotics, adaptive systems, and machine learning, whose work has fundamentally advanced how robots learn, adapt, and recover from adversity. Best known for his landmark 2015 paper "Robots that can adapt like animals" (948 citations), Mouret demonstrated that robots could rapidly recover from damage by drawing on a pre-computed repertoire of behaviors — a breakthrough that brought animal-like resilience to machines. This work builds on his influential Quality-Diversity framework, most notably the MAP-Elites algorithm ("Illuminating search spaces by mapping elites," 412 citations), which revolutionized optimization by simultaneously seeking high-performing and behaviorally diverse solutions across numerous fields beyond robotics. His investigations into behavioral diversity in evolutionary robotics (254 citations) and novelty-based search helped shift the field away from rigid fitness-only optimization. Mouret has also contributed to understanding the evolutionary origins of hierarchical structures, soft tensegrity robotics, and bridging the simulation-to-reality gap in evolved controllers. Collectively, his publications have amassed thousands of citations, establishing him as one of the most impactful figures shaping the future of intelligent, resilient robotic systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robots that can adapt like animals948 citations · 2015
- 2Illuminating search spaces by mapping elites412 citations · 2015
- 3From Animals to Animats 10313 citations · 2008
- 4Evolutionary Robotics: What, Why, and Where to262 citations · 2015
- 5Encouraging Behavioral Diversity in Evolutionary Robotics: An Empirical Study254 citations · 2011
- 6Adaptive and Resilient Soft Tensegrity Robots134 citations · 2018
- 7Novelty-Based Multiobjectivization130 citations · 2011
- 8The Evolutionary Origins of Hierarchy123 citations · 2016
- 9
- 10Reset-free Trial-and-Error Learning for Robot Damage Recovery105 citations · 2017