André Guignard is a Swiss

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 initially educated as a watchmaker

Watchmaker

A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers solely repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...

. He is the creator of the mechanic of the Khepera

Khepera mobile robot

The Khepera is a small differential wheeled mobile robot that was developed at the LAMI laboratory of Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud at EPFL in the mid '90s. It was developed by Edo...

, the S-bot and several other mobile robots.

Working at the LAMI of the EPFL with Professor Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Jean-Daniel Nicoud

Jean-Daniel Nicoud , is a Swiss computer scientist, noted for inventing of a computer mouse with an optical encoder and the CALM Common Assembly Language for microprocessors....

, he designed and realised in 1977 the first modern computer mouse, that started the successful Logitech

Logitech

Logitech International S.A. is a global provider of personal peripherals for computers and other digital platforms headquartered in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, microphones, game controllers...

 diversification.

Born in 1942, he was enrolled at the EPFL in 1976 and made many research projects successful due to an exceptional mastering of how to conceive and build micromechanical systems. His interaction with students was always greatly appreciated. He retired in March 2007, but still helps part time with EPFL research projects.

The Swiss Mouse

Prototypes of an improved Englebart mouse with an optical encoder were built at Lami in 1972 (see EPFL mouse story), but there was no need for a mouse when graphic screens were not available. The LAMI-EPFL developed several microprocessor driven graphic screens since 1974 and André Guignard designed in 1977 a reliable mechanism for measuring the ball movement with optical encoders. This was the first modern computer mouse using an optical encoder.

The Khepera

A student project for a 5 cm diameter robot was redesigned in 1993 by André Guignard,
Francesco Mondada

Francesco Mondada

Francesco Mondada is a Swiss researcher in artificial intelligence and robotics. He is one of the creators of the Khepera, the S-bot and the e-puck mobile robots. He got a Master's degree in Microengineering at the EPFL in 1991 and a Ph.D. degree in 1997.He was the director of from its creation...

 and Edo Franzi. After the first prototypes, the construction of this powerful small robot named Khepera from the scarab-looking Egyptian god Khepra

Khepri

This article is about the Egyptian god. For the type of robot, see Khepera mobile robot.In Egyptian mythology, Khepri is the name of a major god. Khepri is associated with the dung beetle , whose behavior of maintaining spherical balls of dung represents the forces which move the sun...

 was subcontracted to Forelec until K-Team SA foundation in 1996. The Khepera was sold to a thousand of research labs and hold the cover of Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

 in its issue of August 31st, 2000, linked with the article of Michael J. B. Krieger, Jean-Bernard Billeter and Laurent Keller.

The Robota Doll

The Robota research objective of Prof Aude Billard is to engage in complex interaction with humans. In 1999, Prof Aude Billard was in need of a doll with moving legs and head. André Guignard built the mechanics, and added in 2005 moving eyes with a camera inside in the 8 cm diameter head. He helped students to build multi-degrees of liberty arms and necks.

The S-bot (European project)

The swarm-bots project was in need of a number of simpler, insect-like, robots (s-bots), built out of relatively cheap components, capable of self-assembling and self-organising to adapt to their environment. André Guignard interacted with Francesco Mondada and the other partners of the project and built 35 mechanically complex 15 cm in diameter s-bot robots that can grip each other to pass over an obstacle. The s-bot was ranked on position 39 in the list of “The 50 Best Robots Ever” (fiction or real) by the Wired magazine

Wired (magazine)

Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...

 in 2006.

Flying robot

Jean-Christophe Zufferey PhD thesis was on bio-inspired autonomous flying. The 2006 smaller plane of the microflyer project flyes in a 7x7m space. Based on the 5g microCeline of Didel, the 5 grams payload includes two linear cameras compacted by André Guignard and a tricky propeller gearbox in the middle of the fuselage, so the camera is in front. The propeller on top is a 0.2g anemometer measuring wind speed down to 0.1 m/s.

Snake and salamander robots

Prof. Auke Ijspeert is concerned about the neural mechanisms of movement control in vertebrates

Vertebrate

Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...

. André Guignard developed and built for him all the mechanics of the AmphiBot snake robots, as well as those of the Salamandra robotica salamander robot. One of the major difficulties building these amphibious robots was indeed their waterproofing.

External links

• André Guignard at EPFL (includes a list of recent publications)