Jean-Daniel Nicoud

About

Jean-Daniel Nicoud is a pioneering roboticist whose research spans autonomous mobile robotics, micro-aerial vehicles, and humanitarian applications of intelligent machines. Based at EPFL, Nicoud has made landmark contributions to the field of indoor autonomous flight, leading a project that sought to evolve neural controllers for ultra-lightweight micro-flyers capable of navigating confined spaces — a technically formidable challenge requiring miniaturization, energy efficiency, and mastery of nonlinear flight dynamics. His team's development of a 10-gram vision-based flying robot and a 1.5-gram SMA-actuated microglider represent extraordinary achievements in miniature autonomous systems, garnering dozens of citations each and pushing the boundaries of what microrobotics can achieve. Nicoud also applied his expertise to life-saving humanitarian work, contributing significantly to autonomous demining robotics through projects like the Pemex-B robot, addressing the global crisis of over 100 million buried landmines. His 1997 work on autonomous vacuum cleaners further demonstrated his versatility across practical robotic applications. With a body of work accumulating nearly 400 citations, Nicoud's career exemplifies the rare combination of theoretical ambition and real-world impact that defines transformative engineering research.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   From Wheels to Wings with Evolutionary Spiking Circuits

   60 citations · 2005
2. 2
   A 10-gram vision-based flying robot

   56 citations · 2007
3. 3
   Autonomous vacuum cleaner

   56 citations · 1997
4. 4
   Toward indoor flying robots

   48 citations · 2002
5. 5
   The Pemex-B autonomous demining robot: perception and navigation strategies

   46 citations · 2002
6. 6
   Design, Control, and Applications of Autonomous Mobile Robots

   37 citations · 1999
7. 7
   Vehicles and robots for humanitarian demining

   34 citations · 1997
8. 8
   A 1.5g SMA-actuated Microglider looking for the Light

   27 citations · 2007
9. 9
   Robots for Anti-Personnel Mine Search

   15 citations · 1995
10. 10
    Microengineering: when is small too small? Nanoengineering: when is large too large?

    15 citations · 2002

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links