Introducing Jean-Paul Laumond
Inaugural lecture given on Thursday 19 January 2012
Texte intégral
1Dear Colleague,
Dear Jean-Paul Laumond,
2The annual Chair of Technological Innovation, supported by the Liliane Bettencourt Foundation, provides an opportunity for new disciplines to express themselves at the Collège de France. That is the case of robotics, which was born fifty years ago and has since grown at an impressive pace.
3Robotics produces machines animated by movements controlled by a computer. It draws on many other disciplines, including automatic control engineering, signal processing, computing, and the mathematical processing of complex data. In the 1960s the first industrial robots appeared on assembly lines in the car industry. The beginnings of robotics were thus in manufacturing.
4Today robotics plays an essential role in many sectors: industry, aeronautics, space technology, the military field, personal help, and health. Over a million patients have undergone surgical operations with (and not by) a robot. Anthropomorphic robots took their first steps on earth long ago, and now motorized vehicles ride around on Mars! Financial investments by big companies and governments match the huge potential of robotics. Experts at Metra Martech estimate the number of jobs that could be created in industrial robotics at around one million.
5Robots act through movement in and on the real world. Very early on the necessity appeared to give robots the ability to decide, to be autonomous, to learn by taking into account the physical world, and to interact with other machines and with humans. Making robots talented, skilled and efficient —I won’t use the word intelligent— is one of the fascinating aspects of robotics. We give robots some of our intelligence, but biologists can ask the opposite question: can robots contribute, to some extent, to our understanding of life forms?
6You are one of the leading specialists in humanoid robotics. After studying mathematics at the University of Toulouse, you turned your attention to what was then a nascent field, robotics, in which you were awarded a PhD. You are currently a director of research at the CNRS in France’s largest robotics laboratory, the LAAS (Laboratoire d’Analyse et d’Architecture des Systèmes).
7Your skills are both theoretical and practical: you are an international expert on movement control algorithms, you participated in the creation of the company Kineo in 2005, and you are one of the founders of the group Gepetto at the LAAS, which designs virtual prototypes of humanoid robots. Your work is a fine example of the engineer’s pragmatism at the service of the researcher’s dream.
8We would also like to dream. Have humans not always imagined the creation of beings in their image: demigods or docile servants, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the humanoid robot in Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis, cinema’s first robot, a mechanical but singularly sensual being?
9So let’s dream a little, for the duration of a lecture. Did you not consider entitling this inaugural lecture: “Robotics: Hephaestus’ recurrent dream”?
Auteurs
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Origine et histoire des hominidés. Nouveaux paradigmes
Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 27 mars 2008
Michel Brunet
2008
L’épidémie du sida. Mondialisation des risques, transformations de la santé publique et développement
Peter Piot
2010
Les nanotechnologies peuvent-elles contribuer à traiter des maladies sévères ?
Patrick Couvreur
2010
Des microbes et des hommes. Guerre et paix aux surfaces muqueuses
Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 20 novembre 2008
Philippe Sansonetti
2009
De l’atome au matériau. Les phénomènes quantiques collectifs
From the atom to matter. Collective quantum phenomena
Antoine Georges
2010
Origine et histoire des hominidés. Nouveaux paradigmes
Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 27 mars 2008
Michel Brunet
2008
L’épidémie du sida. Mondialisation des risques, transformations de la santé publique et développement
Peter Piot
2010
Les nanotechnologies peuvent-elles contribuer à traiter des maladies sévères ?
Patrick Couvreur
2010
Des microbes et des hommes. Guerre et paix aux surfaces muqueuses
Leçon inaugurale prononcée le jeudi 20 novembre 2008
Philippe Sansonetti
2009
De l’atome au matériau. Les phénomènes quantiques collectifs
From the atom to matter. Collective quantum phenomena
Antoine Georges
2010
Energy: Electrochemical Storage and Sustainable Development
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 9 December 2010
Jean-Marie Tarascon Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2017
Literatures of Medieval France
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Friday 24 March 1995
Michel Zink Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2017
These Shreds, Guardians of Human Memory: Papyrus and Culture in Late Antiquity
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 7 January 2016
Jean-Luc Fournet Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2018
Of what is History capable?
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 17 December 2015
Patrick Boucheron Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2018
Architecture, Modernity, Modernization
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 21 May 2014
Jean-Louis Cohen Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
The Voice and the Quill. The Paths of Canonization of the Quʾrān
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 2 April 2015
François Déroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
The Dynamics of Living Systems
Inaugural lecture given on Thursday 27 April 2017
Thomas Lecuit Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
On the Inequality of Lives
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 16 January 2020
Didier Fassin Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2023
Complexity of Linguistic Structures, Simplicity of Language Mechanisms
Inaugural lecture delivered on Thursday 5 November 2020
Luigi Rizzi Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Epigenetics and Cellular Memory
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 13 December 2012
Edith Heard Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
A Genetic Tale: Our Diversity, our Evolution, our Adaptation
Inaugural lecture delivered at the Collège de France on Thursday 6 February 2020
Lluis Quintana-Murci Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Oncology: From Empiricism to Integrative Biology
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 8 January 2015
Hugues de Thé Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Energy: Electrochemical Storage and Sustainable Development
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 9 December 2010
Jean-Marie Tarascon Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2017
Literatures of Medieval France
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Friday 24 March 1995
Michel Zink Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2017
These Shreds, Guardians of Human Memory: Papyrus and Culture in Late Antiquity
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 7 January 2016
Jean-Luc Fournet Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2018
Of what is History capable?
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 17 December 2015
Patrick Boucheron Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2018
Architecture, Modernity, Modernization
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 21 May 2014
Jean-Louis Cohen Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
The Voice and the Quill. The Paths of Canonization of the Quʾrān
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 2 April 2015
François Déroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
The Dynamics of Living Systems
Inaugural lecture given on Thursday 27 April 2017
Thomas Lecuit Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2020
On the Inequality of Lives
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 16 January 2020
Didier Fassin Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2023
Complexity of Linguistic Structures, Simplicity of Language Mechanisms
Inaugural lecture delivered on Thursday 5 November 2020
Luigi Rizzi Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Epigenetics and Cellular Memory
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 13 December 2012
Edith Heard Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
A Genetic Tale: Our Diversity, our Evolution, our Adaptation
Inaugural lecture delivered at the Collège de France on Thursday 6 February 2020
Lluis Quintana-Murci Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Oncology: From Empiricism to Integrative Biology
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 8 January 2015
Hugues de Thé Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
2024
Introducing Marc Fontecave
Pierre Corvol Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Serge Haroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
On the Origins of Global History
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 28 November 2013
Sanjay Subrahmanyam Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Pierre Corvol Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Geometries of the Living
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 4 October 2007
Alain Prochiantz Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Serge Haroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Refocusing Central Asia
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 7 November 2013
Frantz Grenet Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Serge Haroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Difference, Competition and Disproportion. The Sociology of Creative Work
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 9 January 2014
Pierre-Michel Menger Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Serge Haroche Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
The Informatics of Time and Events
Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 28 March 2013
Gérard Berry Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
Introduction
Pierre Corvol Liz Libbrecht (trad.)
