ACADEMICS

Publications

• Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:

McLaughlin, E., Charron, N., & Narasimhan, S. (2020). "Automated defect quantification in concrete bridges using robotics and deep learning" . Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 34(5)

Charron, N., McLaughlin, E., Phillips, S., Goorts, K., Waslander, S., and Narasimhan, S. (2018) “Automated Bridge Inspection using Mobile Robotics” Journal of Structural Engineering, Accepted March 2018.

• Conference Proceedings

McLaughlin, J., Thoms, A., Charron, N., \& Narasimhan, S. (2021). "Depth Completion from Sparse 3D Maps for Automated Defect Quantification". ASCE Lifelines Conference, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2021. Accepted: June 2021

Phillips, S., Charron, N., McLaughlin, E., & Narasimhan, S. (2019) “Infrastructure Mapping and Inspection using Mobile Ground Robotics". In 12th International Workshop on Structural Health Monitoring (IWSHM ).

McLaughlin, E., Charron, N., & Narasimhan, S. (2019, May) “Combining Deep Learning and Robotics for Automated Concrete Delamination Assessment”. In 36th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC) (pp. 485-492)

Charron, N., Phillips, S., & Waslander, S. L. (2018, May). De-noising of Lidar Point Clouds Corrupted by Snowfall. In 15th Conference on Computer and Robot Vision (CRV) (pp. 254-261). IEEE.

Graduate Research

Thesis: Automated asset inspections using mobile robotics, University of Waterloo, September 2016 - Present

• Co-supervised by Dr. S Narasimhan from Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. S Waslander from Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering

Field Trials:

• • NCFRN Field Trials, University of Waterloo, May - June 2016. Assisted the Waterloo Autonomous Vehicles (WAVE) Laboratory in the preparation and field testing of a multi-camera SLAM platform (MCPTAM). This involved the integration of an additional gimbaled camera on a DJI S900 with a new NovAtel RTK GPS system

Conference Presentations:

• • Charron, N. (2019) "The future of structural sensing." Structures Congress, Orlando, FL, April 24-27

  • Charron, N. (2018) “Estimating concrete spall volumes from lidar using autonomous ground robots.” Structures Congress, Fort Worth, TX, April 19-24 (oral presentation, international, PhD work)

  • Charron, N*., Phillips, S., Waslander, S. (2018) “De-noising of lidar point clouds corrupted by snowfall.” NSERC National Field Robotics Network Annual General Meeting, Montreal, QC, June 6-9 (poster presentation), and Computer and Robot Vision, Toronto, ON, May 9-11 (poster presentation)

Undergraduate Research

• Undergraduate Research Assistantship, January - May 2016

  • Waterloo Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory

  • Assisted in the implementation of ARTag tracking in ROS for the development of a SLAM algorithm to be used on lightweight pedestrian bridges

  • Studied existing platforms and software to use for augmenting structural health monitoring of bridges with UAVs.

• Undergraduate Research Assistantship, April - August 2015

  • University of Waterloo’s Structural Dynamics, Control & Identification Group

  • Assisting in the testing of a structure’s response due to dynamic loading subject to active damping systems

Academic Record

• Candidate for Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering and Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering (Joint)

  • University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

  • May 2016 - Present

• Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc), Honours Civil Engineering Co-operative Program

  • With Distinction - Dean's Honours List

  • University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

  • September 2011 - April 2016

• Ontario Secondary School Diploma

  • Saint-Charles-Garnier, Whitby, ON

  • Bilingual Diploma

  • September 2006 - June 2011

Certificates

• Certificate in Structural Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON

  • April 2016

• Certificate of Bilingualism, French and English

  • Saint-Charles-Garnier, Whitby, ON

  • June 2011