Alban Laflaquière

Research

My research interests are in Machine Learning and Robotics. I am particularly interested in the emergence and development of intelligence in artificial systems. My goal is to make robots more autonomous in their ability to explore and learn from their environment, taking inspiration from the development of intelligence in animals and humans.

My work focuses on the unsupervised grounding of perceptive abilities and common sense knowledge. Besides the acquisition of functional perception, I am especially interested in the sensorimotor structure underlying perceptive concepts (space, objects, body, modalities) that could act as building blocks for advanced cognitive abilities.
I also keep a close eye on Evolutionary Algorithms as a potential way to design suitable priors for Robotic systems and bootstrap their cognitive development.

Selected Publications

Unsupervised Learning and Exploration of Reachable Outcome Space, G. Paolo, A. Laflaquiere, A. Coninx, S. Doncieux , ICRA 2020 [paper]

Novelty Search makes Evolvability Inevitable, S Doncieux, G. Paolo, A. Laflaquière, A. Coninx, GECCO 2020 [paper]

Unsupervised Emergence of Egocentric Spatial Structure from Sensorimotor Prediction, A. Laflaquière, M. Garcia Ortiz, NeurIPS 2019 [paper]

Self-Supervised Body Image Acquisition Using a Deep Neural Network for Sensorimotor Prediction, A. Laflaquière, V. Hafner, ICDL-Epirob 2019 [paper]

Novelty Search: a Theoretical Perspective, S. Doncieux, A. Laflaquière, A. Coninx, GECCO 2019 [paper]

A Bi-directional Multiple Timescales LSTM Model for Grounding of Actions and Verbs, A. Antunes, A. Laflaquière, T. Ogata, A. Cangelosi, IROS 2019 [paper]

Online Learning of Body Orientation Control on a Humanoid Robot using Finite Element Goal Babbling, P. Loviken, N. Hemion, A. Laflaquiere, M. Spranger, A. Cangelosi, IROS 2018 [paper]

Learning representations of spatial displacement through sensorimotor prediction, M. Garcia Ortiz, A. Laflaquière, ICDL-Epriob 2018 [paper]

A Sensorimotor Perspective on Grounding the Semantic of Simple Visual Features, A. Laflaquière, ICDL-Epirob 2018 [paper]

Discovering space—Grounding spatial topology and metric regularity in a naive agent’s sensorimotor experience, A. Laflaquière, J.K. O’Regan, B. Gas, A.V. Terekhov, Neural Networks, 2018 [paper]

Identification of invariant sensorimotor structures as a prerequisite for the discovery of objects, N. Le Hir, O. Sigaud, A. Laflaquière, Frontiers Robotics and AI, 2018 [paper]

Grounding the experience of a visual field through sensorimotor contingencies, A. Laflaquière, Neurocomputing, 2017 [paper]

Learning agent’s spatial configuration from sensorimotor invariants, A. Laflaquière, J.K. O’Regan, S. Argentieri, B. Gas, A.V. Terekhov, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 2015 [paper]

Grounding object perception in a naive agent's sensorimotor experience, A. Laflaquiere, N. Hemion, ICDL-Epirob 2015 [paper]

Learning an internal representation of the end-effector configuration space, A. Laflaquiere, A.V. Terekhov, B. Gas, J.K. O'Regan, IROS 2013 [paper]

A non-linear approach to space dimension perception by a naive agent, A. Laflaquiere, S. Argentieri, O. Breysse, S. Genet, B. Gas, IROS 2012 [paper]

Invited Talks

Mapping the self: infants, robots, and modeling, ICDL-Epirob: Discovering space: Knowing where my body is moving, August 2019

SorBotic conference: Formations, prospects and stakes in Robotics, November 2019

Learning Body Models seminar, Lorentz Center: Robots learning about space and a robot manufacturer perspective, October 2018

Exobiology Meetings, RED: Robotics and AI, Mars 2018

Intervention in the “Excellency Interviews”, May 2011

Associative life

Member of the Meta-Orchestra, innovative music project in Puce-Muse, 2009 - 2013

Organizer and participant in the French Science Week, 2008 - 2012

Main coordinator and organizer of the Day for the Young Researchers in Robotics (JJCR), 2010

President of the Ultimate Sport Association, ENSEEIHT, 2006 - 2007