IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2022 - 118

Supérieure in Paris in 2019, within the
Inria team Willow.
From nonho -
He was ready to
listen and exchange
inspiring ideas with
colleagues, and
generous in giving
advice and sharing
his visions and
enthusiasm with
students.
lonomic motion
planning and control,
to humanoid
robotics, to
mo deling human
motion, Jean-Paul
was able to de -
velop complex
theories and put
them to work in
the real world.
This includes the
development of
initial and pioneering
solutions
to the simultaneous localization and
mapping problem for the Hilare robot
in the early 1980s and founding the
company Kineo CAM, which is now a
part of Siemens.
He was awarded the IEEE Robotics
and Automation Society (RAS) Inaba
Technical Award for Innovation Leading
to Production in 2016. He was elevated
to Fellow of IEEE in 2007 for his
" contributions to robot motion planning
and control. " He served two terms
as a member of the RAS Administrative
Committee (2007-2012) and was editor
of IEEE Transactions on Robotics
(2008-2012).
Jean-Paul was also a leader. He was
director of the Joint Japanese-French
laboratory on humanoid robotics
from 2005 to 2008. He founded the
Gepetto team at LAAS to focus on
anthropomorphic motion and was
awarded a prestigious European
Research Council Advanced Grant to
study the computational foundations
of anthropomorphic action.
Jean-Paul was the first roboticist to
hold the Liliane Bettencourt Chair in
Technological Innovation at the prestigious
Collège de France from 2011 to
2012-true ambassador of our field. In
2015, he was elected to the French
Academy of Technology and then to the
Academy of Sciences in 2017.
Many in our robotics family at large
share memories about the fascinating
scientific and human personality of
Jean-Paul. He was a curious researcher
who loved challenges and discussing
science at all levels. He was ready to listen
and exchange inspiring ideas with
colleagues, and generous in giving
advice and sharing his visions and
enthusiasm with students. Jean-Paul
was a kind and warm person with a
charming smile and dry sense of
humor, although he was strong and
passionate when arguing about culture,
politics, or food (not to mention
Poincaré and Hephaestus), and al -
ways available to serve our community
and discipline.
Jean-Paul was concerned about the
perception of technology, and how the
language used to describe robots
skewed the understanding of their
capacities in the general public. He was
always at the center of enthusiastic multicultural
discussions among robotics
researchers with his love of art, music,
science, and mathematics, which also
made him a leader and spokesperson of
robotics as both a science and a metaphysical
reflection. In November 2021,
just a few weeks before his passing, he
coorganized a multidisciplinary colloquium
at the Academy of Sciences:
Figure 2. Jean-Paul Laumond in front of a10-ft-tall bronze Pinocchio statue at the IEEE/RSJ
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, St. Louis, Missouri, USA (2009).
" Myths and Machines. Robotics and
Artificial Intelligence: Thinking About
Technology Today. " He left us too soon
with this legacy.
118 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE * MARCH 2022

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2022

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