My research focuses on collective adaptive systems: understanding and engineering how groups of agents can self-organize, learn, and evolve in open environments.

Core questions

  1. How can distributed learning and social transmission enable collective adaptation?
  2. How do physical constraints (collisions, morphology, energy limits) shape collective dynamics?
  3. How can we design robotic systems that both test biological/evolutionary hypotheses and provide new paradigms for AI?

Approach

  • Cross-disciplinary methods: machine learning, evolutionary computation, evolutionary dynamics, statistical physics.
  • Swarm robotics experiments: Pogobots (200+ units, made by us), Kilobots, Thymios, custom platforms.
  • Simulation tools: Roborobo4 (C++/Python), agent-based numerical simulations.

Recent Research (selection)

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  • (1) social learning with swarm robotics (1)(2)
  • (2) smart active matter (3)(4)
  • (3) spectral methods for swarm robotics (5)
  • (4) evolution of social behaviors (6)(7)(8)
  • (5) Pogobot, an open-source open-hardware platform for swarm robotics (9)(web)

Complete list of publications: Google Scholar or HAL

Postdocs and PhD Students

Current

  • Jeremy Fersula (ATER, started 2025) : smart active matter and learning dynamics
  • Esther Maria Zamora Sanchèz (phd, started 2025, with R. Candelier) : emergent collective decision making
  • Thomas Juldo (phd, started 2025, with G. Bailly and M. Teyssier) : human-swarm interaction
  • Léo Cazenille (senior post-doc, started 2024) : spectral methods in swarm robotics
  • Loona Macabre (phd, started 2024, with N. Aubert-Kato) : Reaction-Diffusion-Advection models for swarm robotics
  • Keivan Amini (phd, started 2024, with O. Dauchot) : smart active matter and swarm robotics
  • Sébastien Bilès (phd, started 2024, with R. Candelier) : brain-body co-evolution
  • Alessia Loi (phd, started 2023) : signalling and learning in swarm robotics

Past

  • Dari Trendafilov (postdoc 2024 with E. Tuci) : swarm robotics, foraging, self-organization
  • Maxime Toquebiau (phd 2024 with F. Ben Amar and JY Jun Kim) : multi-robot deep RL and communication
  • Jérémy Fersula (phd 2023 with O. Dauchot) : smart active matter and social learning
  • Nicolas Fontbonne (phd 2023 with N. Maudet) : invidual and collective learning in swarm robotics
  • Yoones Mirhosseini (ing. 2020-2023) : using collision-based primitives in swarm robotics learning
  • Matan Yah Ben Zion (postdoc 2020-2022) : soft-matter physics and swarm robotics
  • Alexis Duburcq (phd 2022 with Y. Chevaleyre) : machine learning for exoskeleton walking gaits
  • Fabien Caura (ing. 2019-2022) : pogobot hardware/firmware
  • Stéphane Gourichon (ing. 2020-2021) : pogobot software
  • Paul Ecoffet (phd 2021 with JB André) : evolution of partner choice
  • Léo Cazenille (phd 2018 with J. Halloy) : mixed society of animals and robots
  • Nathanaël Aubert-Kato (postdoc 2016-2018) : molecular programming and swarm robotics
  • Arthur Bernard (phd 2016 with JB André) : evolution of cooperation
  • Jean-Marc Montanier (phd 2013) : embodied evolutionary robotics
  • Alexandre Devert (phd 2009 with M. Schoenauer) : generative developmental systems
  • Cedric Hartland (phd 2009 with M. Sebag) : reservoir computing for evolutionary robotics
  • Sylvain Gelly (phd 2007 with O. Teytaud and M. Sebag) : SLAM, genetic prog. (and Go, only w/ O. Teytaud)