Pascal Bigras

About

Pascal Bigras is a prominent robotics researcher whose work spans parallel robot design, medical robotics, robot calibration, and control systems. Based at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal, Bigras has made substantial contributions to advancing both industrial and medical applications of robotic systems over a career spanning three decades. Among his most influential contributions is his pioneering work on five-bar parallel robots, where he developed large-workspace designs and minimum-time trajectory planning using cubic spline stochastic optimization to navigate singularities — work that has garnered over 200 combined citations. His medical robotics research is equally notable: Bigras helped develop robotic 3D ultrasound imaging systems for diagnosing peripheral arterial disease, enabling non-invasive, three-dimensional vascular mapping that earned widespread recognition across the field. Bigras has also advanced robot accuracy through elasto-geometrical calibration techniques for industrial robots, improving real-world precision under external loads. His early work on neural network-based adaptive robot control foreshadowed modern data-driven approaches to nonlinear systems. Additional contributions include force/motion control frameworks using LMI formalism and a haptic wheelchair ergometer enabling realistic rehabilitation simulations. With research touching industrial automation, healthcare, and human-robot interaction, Bigras represents a versatile and impactful voice in applied robotics.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Minimum-Time Trajectory Planning and Control of a Pick-and-Place Five-Bar Parallel Robot

   129 citations · 2014
2. 2
   Development of a Five-Bar Parallel Robot With Large Workspace

   84 citations · 2010
3. 3
   Elasto-geometrical calibration of an industrial robot under multidirectional external loads using a laser tracker

   60 citations · 2016
4. 4
   Performance evaluation of a medical robotic 3D-ultrasound imaging system

   58 citations · 2007
5. 5
   A New Medical Parallel Robot and Its Static Balancing Optimization

   55 citations · 2007
6. 6
   A Robotic Ultrasound Scanner for Automatic Vessel Tracking and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of B-Mode Images

   53 citations · 2015
7. 7
   A Multistage Position/Force Control for Constrained Robotic Systems With Friction: Joint-Space Decomposition, Linearization, and Multiobjective Observer/Controller Synthesis Using LMI Formalism

   51 citations · 2006
8. 8
   Absolute accuracy analysis and improvement of a hybrid 6-DOF medical robot

   47 citations · 2015
9. 9
   A New Wheelchair Ergometer Designed as an Admittance-Controlled Haptic Robot

   27 citations · 2013
10. 10
    Adaptive robot control using neural networks

    27 citations · 1994

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links