L. Lapierre

About

Ludovic Lapierre is a prominent robotics and control systems researcher whose work spans autonomous ground vehicles, marine surface vessels, and underwater robotic systems. He is best known for his foundational contributions to path-following control theory, particularly for unicycle-type wheeled robots, where his adaptive, nonsingular control laws — grounded in Lyapunov stability theory and backstepping techniques — elegantly address vehicle dynamics, parametric uncertainty, and problematic initial conditions. These methods, introduced in a series of highly influential papers accumulating over 450 combined citations, have become reference works in mobile robotics control design. Lapierre has also made significant strides in combining path-following with real-time obstacle avoidance, advancing the practical deployability of autonomous robots in unstructured environments. His research extends prominently into maritime robotics, including coordinated motion control of marine robots, autonomous surface vehicles, and hybrid underwater robotic systems, reflecting a broad and sustained engagement with ocean exploration technology. His 2017 survey on fuzzy-logic-based guidance and control of marine vehicles, with 340 citations, underscores his role as a synthesizer and leader in the field. Additional contributions to fault-tolerant mobile robotics and underwater manipulation round out a research portfolio of exceptional range and lasting influence.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Survey on Fuzzy-Logic-Based Guidance and Control of Marine Surface Vehicles and Underwater Vehicles

   340 citations · 2017
2. 2
   Adaptive, non-singular path-following control of dynamic wheeled robots

   242 citations · 2004
3. 3
   Combined Path-following and Obstacle Avoidance Control of a Wheeled Robot

   143 citations · 2007
4. 4
   Coordinated motion control of marine robots *

   86 citations · 2003
5. 5
   Enhancing fault tolerance of autonomous mobile robots

   81 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Nonsingular path following control of a unicycle in the presence of parametric modelling uncertainties

   74 citations · 2006
7. 7
   PATH-FOLLOWING ALGORITHMS AND EXPERIMENTS FOR AN AUTONOMOUS SURFACE VEHICLE

   39 citations · 2007
8. 8
   Simulatneous Path Following and Obstacle Avoidance Control of a Unicycle-type Robot

   35 citations · 2007
9. 9
   Hybrid underwater robotic vehicles: the state-of-the-art and future trends

   33 citations · 2015
10. 10
    Position/Force Control of an Underwater Mobile Manipulator

    27 citations · 2003

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links