Steve Tonneau

About

Steve Tonneau is a prominent robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of motion planning, legged locomotion, and optimal control. His research has fundamentally advanced how multi-legged robots — from humanoids to quadrupeds — navigate complex, unstructured environments through intelligent contact planning and dynamic motion generation. Tonneau's most influential contribution, "An Efficient Acyclic Contact Planner for Multiped Robots" (2018, 144 citations), addresses a critical gap exposed by the DARPA Robotics Challenge, enabling robots to climb stairs, traverse rubble, and exit vehicles. His complementary work on pattern generation (2016, 114 citations) provides the mathematical backbone for computing dynamically stable trajectories across diverse legged platforms. Through his CROC and C-CROC frameworks, he introduced convex optimization approaches to centroidal dynamics, making feasibility checks for multi-contact scenarios dramatically faster and more reliable. Tonneau has also made lasting infrastructure contributions through HPP, an open-source motion planning software framework (61 citations) that has become a valuable community resource. His more recent work on whole-body model predictive control, validated experimentally on the TALOS humanoid robot, demonstrates his commitment to bridging theoretical advances with real-world implementation. Collectively, his publications have accumulated over 600 citations, cementing his standing as a leading voice in robot locomotion research.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   An Efficient Acyclic Contact Planner for Multiped Robots

   144 citations · 2018
2. 2
   A versatile and efficient pattern generator for generalized legged locomotion

   114 citations · 2016
3. 3
   HPP: A new software for constrained motion planning

   61 citations · 2016
4. 4
   C-CROC: Continuous and Convex Resolution of Centroidal Dynamic Trajectories for Legged Robots in Multicontact Scenarios

   54 citations · 2020
5. 5
   CROC: Convex Resolution of Centroidal Dynamics Trajectories to Provide a Feasibility Criterion for the Multi Contact Planning Problem

   53 citations · 2018
6. 6
   Fast algorithms to test robust static equilibrium for legged robots

   49 citations · 2016
7. 7
   Whole Body Model Predictive Control with a Memory of Motion: Experiments on a Torque-Controlled Talos

   47 citations · 2021
8. 8
   Inverse-Dynamics MPC via Nullspace Resolution

   41 citations · 2023
9. 9
   36 citations · 2020
10. 10
    A Reachability-Based Planner for Sequences of Acyclic Contacts in Cluttered Environments

    31 citations · 2017

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links