Gabriel Gattaux Goulon

PhD Student in Robotics, Aix Marseille University

Robotics and Biology are two major branches of modern science: one builds artificial systems capable of sensing, moving, and adapting, while the other seeks to understand how natural systems, from cells to brains to behaviors, achieve the same. Biorobotics is the interdisciplinary field that bridges them, combining principles from engineering, neuroscience, and biology to study living intelligence and design machines inspired by it. It plays a crucial role in our understanding of movement, perception, and adaptation across living organisms, while enabling the development of frugal, robust, and efficient robots inspired by nature. Research in biorobotics helps us make predictions about how animals think and behave, and to test these predictions on robotics platforms.

An Ant looking at the Antcar robot. Credit: Tifenn Ripoll - VOST Collectif / Institut Carnot STAR. Gattaux, G., et al. Route-centric ant-inspired memories enable panoramic route-following in a car-like robot. Nat. Commun. (2025)

About me

I am a roboticist with a focus on bio-inspired robotics, working at the intersection of autonomous robotics, neuromorphic engineering, natural and artificial vision, control theory, computational neuroscience, and ethology. My research aims to understand how biological systems perceive, navigate, and make decisions in natural environments, and to translate these principles into frugal, robust, and adaptive autonomous machines. A central goal of my work is to develop lightweight robotic systems capable of operating in degraded and constrained environments, such as GNSS and communication-denied conditions, while relying on the lowest possible sensing, memory, and computational resources.

I am currently finishing my PhD in Robotics at Aix-Marseille University under the supervision of Franck Ruffier, Julien Serres, and Antoine Wystrach. My doctoral work lies at the intersection of robotics and animal cognition, in collaboration with the Centre de Recherche sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA, CNRS, Toulouse), the Joint Robotics Laboratory (CNRS-AIST, Japan), and ENSTA Bretagne (IP Paris, ENSTA). Alongside my research, I have also taught at ENSTA Bretagne and Aix-Marseille University.

I received my Engineering Degree in Mechatronics (~M.Eng) from the ENSIL-ENSCI Engineering School at the University of Limoges, including an Erasmus exchange in Computer Science at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. Before that, I earned my university degree in technology (DUT ~ B.Eng) from the Nancy-Brabois Institute of Technology, alongside a dual curriculum with Polytech Nancy Engineering School.

Beyond research, I am deeply interested in philosophy, history, political thought, and the broader questions surrounding history of science, technology, and intelligence. I enjoy exchanging ideas on these subjects beyond formal academic settings.