The joint UTC-CNRS Heu­dia­syc research labo­ra­to­ry ope­rates in the field of infor­ma­tion science and tech­no­lo­gy, com­mu­ni­ca­tion and com­pu­ter sciences, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in the areas of com­pu­ting, auto­ma­tion, robo­tics and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI).

Objectives

The scien­ti­fic pro­ject deve­lo­ped within Heu­dia­syc is based on the syner­gy bet­ween ups­tream research and tech­no­lo­gi­cal research in the field of com­pu­ter science in res­ponse to socie­tal challenges.

The objec­tives are to pro­duce know­ledge using a rigo­rous scien­ti­fic approach by addres­sing pro­blems that respond to tech­no­lo­gi­cal and socie­tal issues.

Teams and research topics

Heudiasyc's acti­vi­ties are orga­ni­zed around three teams:

• Know­ledge, uncer­tain­ty, data (CID),
• Safe­ty, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, opti­mi­za­tion (SCOP),
• Robo­tic sys­tems in inter­ac­tion (SyRI).

Three cross-team trans­verse issues have been identified:

• Uncer­tain­ty mana­ge­ment
  Given the incom­ple­te­ness plus the inherent uncer­tain­ty of models and data in the face of com­plex rea­li­ties, the aim here is to dis­cuss the per­for­mance and sui­ta­bi­li­ty of dif­ferent for­ma­lisms for the pro­blems addres­sed by the teams.
• Dis­tri­bu­ted fusion
  A sub­ject for which effec­tive mecha­nisms need to be iden­ti­fied to main­tain the consis­ten­cy and inte­gri­ty of information.
• Inter­ac­tions with humans
  Humans as part­ners in the desi­gn or use of machines, or as ope­ra­tors whose needs and poten­tial errors must be taken into account.

Plateforms

The Heu­dia­syc Labo­ra­to­ry has three large-scale tech­no­lo­gy platforms:

• Immer­sive simu­la­tion: brings toge­ther rail­way super­vi­sion and research work on auto­no­mous trains, as well as the CAVE, a vir­tual rea­li­ty room.
• Intel­li­gent vehicles: brings toge­ther all types of expe­ri­men­tal vehicles and a VIL (Vehicle In the Loop) simu­la­tion bench.
• Robo­tics: brings toge­ther mini-drones and small ter­res­trial robots.

Partnerships

The Heu­dia­syc Labo­ra­to­ry is invol­ved in around six­ty pro­jects.

It is also enga­ged in various regio­nal, natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal col­la­bo­ra­tion schemes:

PEPR – Priority Research Programmes and Equipment

Heu­dia­syc is invol­ved in the PEPR Robo­tics, Iccare (Cultu­ral and Crea­tive Indus­tries) and Ensemble (digi­tal collaboration).

CLUSTER IA – Sorbonne University

Heu­dia­syc is part of the consor­tium behind the “PostGenAI@Paris” AI clus­ter led by Sor­bonne Uni­ver­si­ty, one of nine clus­ters selec­ted by the French govern­ment in May 2024 to receive ear-mar­ked fun­ding total­ling Meu­ros 35€. Heu­dia­syc will be in charge of coor­di­na­ting three Col­la­bo­ra­tive Acce­le­ra­tion Pro­grammes (CAP).

The first (AI for a safer indus­try), co-ordi­na­ted with UTC’s Rober­val Labo­ra­to­ry, brings toge­ther lec­tu­rer-cum-research scien­tists and engi­neers from Heu­dia­syc, Rober­val (UTC), Cos­tech (UTC) and Lip6 (SU) to work on fault detec­tion and pre­ven­tive main­te­nance based on machine lear­ning methods to be imple­men­ted in indus­trial systems.

The second (Trust­Wor­thy Inter­ac­tive aug­meN­ted auto­No­mous dri­vING- TWINNING) involves lec­tu­rer-cum-research scien­tists and engi­neers from Heu­dia­syc, Cos­tech, ISIR (SU) and IRCAM, and addresses issues rela­ting to sha­red “dri­ving” of high­ly auto­no­mous vehicles in col­la­bo­ra­tion with the joint labo­ra­to­ry with the Renault Auto­mo­bile Group, SIVALab.

The third (Inte­gra­ted mul­ti­mo­dal AI to adapt lear­ning content to mul­tiple users needs) concerns the per­so­na­li­zed adap­ta­tion of edu­ca­tio­nal content using reu­sable and adap­table mul­ti­mo­dal lear­ner models.

Hauts-de-France Region Projects

CPER 2021–2027 (State-Region HE and Research Incentive Programme)
RITMEA “Research and Innovation in Eco-Responsible and Autonomous Transport and Mobility”

The RITMEA pro­ject is a major research ini­tia­tive aimed at rethin­king our trans­por­ta­tion “tomor­row” to make it safer, smar­ter and more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly. It is co-finan­ced by the Euro­pean Union through the ERDF (Euro­pean Regio­nal Deve­lop­ment Fund) and by the Region through the State-Region Contract (CPER) 2021–2027.

RITMEA is led by the Land Trans­port and Mobi­li­ty Research Fede­ra­tion (FR TTM – CNRS 3733) and is struc­tu­red around six scien­ti­fic areas cove­ring key fields of future mobility.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Tech­no­lo­gy of Com­piègne (UTC), through the Heu­dia­syc labo­ra­to­ry (UMR 7253 CNRS/UTC), plays a cen­tral role in coor­di­na­ting areas 3 and 5, which focus on vehicle auto­ma­tion and trans­por­ta­tion safet

TTM Federation

Heu­dia­syc is cur­rent­ly an asso­ciate mem­ber of the "Land Trans­port and Mobi­li­ty" Research Fede­ra­tion (FR 3733).

EQUIPEX+

Tirrex

The Tir­rex (Tech­no­lo­gi­cal Infra­struc­ture of Robo­tics Research of EXcel­lence) pro­ject led by the CNRS was selec­ted in 2021 as part of the “struc­tu­ring equip­ment for research” Equi­pEx+ pro­gramme of the natio­nal “France 2030” pro­gram (for­mer­ly deno­mi­na­ted as PIA). It brings toge­ther 32 labo­ra­to­ries. The ANR grant for Tir­rex amounts to €12 Meu­ros over the per­iod 2021–2029.

Tir­rex coor­di­nates the deve­lop­ment of and access to new robo­tics plat­forms at the natio­nal level, focus­sing these invest­ments on a few themes and a limi­ted num­ber of pilot sites. The major players in robo­tics research (CNRS, INRIA, CEA, and INRAE) are brought toge­ther in this pro­ject, which is struc­tu­red around six the­ma­tic areas and three trans­verse areas.

Along­side pro­to­ty­ping and desi­gn, as well as hand­ling, the third trans­verse theme focusses on open infra­struc­tures desi­gned to gua­ran­tee and stan­dar­dize access to data, soft­ware and open publi­ca­tions (FAIR data and open source soft­ware). Thanks to TIRREX, which is sup­por­ted by more than fif­ty com­pa­nies and busi­ness net­works, the aca­de­mic com­mu­ni­ty, inclu­ding mem­bers of the GdR Robo­tics, will have access to cut­ting-edge equip­ment on a natio­nal scale.

The “auto­no­mous ter­res­trial robo­tics” axis is led by Heu­dia­syc and the TSCF unit of INRAE. It com­bines intel­li­gent vehicles and agri­cul­tu­ral robo­tics, sha­ring com­mon issues in the field of navi­ga­tion (loca­li­za­tion, per­cep­tion, super­vi­sion, deci­sion-making, plan­ning and control).

Continuum

Conti­nuum (Col­la­bo­ra­tive Conti­nui­ty of digi­tal appli­ca­tions to Humans) is ano­ther EQUIPEX+ pro­ject led by the CNRS in which Heu­dia­syc is invol­ved and is a mem­ber of the project's exe­cu­tive com­mit­tee. The aim is to create a net­work of 30 plat­forms for inter­ac­tion, immer­sion, visua­li­za­tion and col­la­bo­ra­tion, focus­sing on two areas:

• Axis 1: Inter­dis­ci­pli­na­ry research at the inter­face bet­ween digi­tal sciences and human and social sciences.
• Axis 2: Deploy­ment of tools and ser­vices for (and with) other dis­ci­plines and fields of application.

The pro­ject brings toge­ther 22 part­ners (repre­sen­ting around research 35 teams). The ANR grant for Conti­nuum amounts to €13.6 Meu­ros. Its stra­te­gic choices are to extend and com­ple­ment exis­ting plat­forms (rather than crea­ting new ones) and to select sites with research acti­vi­ty in inter­ac­tion, immer­sion, visua­li­za­tion and col­la­bo­ra­tion, rather than sim­ply be limi­ted to users of the technology.

International

HORIZON EUROPE

Heu­dia­syc is invol­ved in seve­ral col­la­bo­ra­tive research pro­jects, ITNs and Marie-Curie actions.

Seve­ral other col­la­bo­ra­tions are car­ried out through joint the­sis super­vi­sion: Turin, Genoa, Mexi­co, Vito­ria, Tokyo, Eind­ho­ven, etc.

Industry

The Heu­dia­syc labo­ra­to­ry leads col­la­bo­ra­tions with various indus­trial part­ners inclu­ding Ampère, Stel­lan­tis, Alten, Plas­tic Omnium…

SIVALAB joint laboratory

The SIVA­Lab (Inte­gra­ted Sys­tems for Auto­no­mous Vehicles), crea­ted in 2017 by the Renault Group and the Heu­dia­syc Labo­ra­to­ry, is a joint labo­ra­to­ry spe­cia­li­zing in loca­li­za­tion and per­cep­tion sys­tems for auto­no­mous vehicles. It is the result of a part­ner­ship span­ning more than ten years and is based on Heudiasyc's auto­no­mous vehicle plat­forms, deve­lo­ped on the basis of the Renault all-elcc­tric model Zoé. It has around twen­ty members.

Industrial Chair in Trustworthy AI

The Indus­trial Chair in “Pru­dent and Robust Lear­ning for Safer Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (SAFE AI)”. This is a five-year research pro­gram led by Heu­dia­syc, the UTC Foun­da­tion for Inno­va­tion, SOPRA STERIA, UTC, CNRS and the SCAI (The Sor­bonne Centre for Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence). The chair focusses on trust­wor­thy AI (SAFE AI), and more spe­ci­fi­cal­ly on safe and robust AI.

Training through research

Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree

A new Master's degree pro­gramme entit­led “Sus­tai­nable Sys­tems Engi­nee­ring (EMSSE)” led by the labo­ra­to­ry was laun­ched at UTC-Com­piegne in Sep­tem­ber 2024.

This is part of UTC's Master's degree pro­gramme in Com­plex Sys­tems Engi­nee­ring, for which Heu­dia­syc is res­pon­sible. The full EMSSE Master's pro­gramme, which lasts two years (120 ECTS cre­dits), focusses on sus­tai­nable sys­tems engi­nee­ring. It aims to equip stu­dents with solid know­ledge and skills to desi­gn effi­cient and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly sys­tems. The pro­gram empha­sizes consi­de­ra­tion of the envi­ron­men­tal, eco­no­mic, and social impacts of sys­tems throu­ghout their life cycle, from desi­gn and deve­lop­ment to ope­ra­tion and maintenance.

The main objec­tive of the EMSSE Master's degree is to desi­gn inno­va­tive career paths and pro­grams for future pro­fes­sio­nals in the field of sys­tems engineering.

Academic

Junior Pro­fes­sor Chair in Trus­ted AI: the research pro­ject is based on for­mal fra­me­works allo­wing the quan­ti­fi­ca­tion of uncer­tain­ty, robust­ness, fair­ness or, more gene­ral­ly, the cha­rac­te­ri­za­tion of the pro­per­ties of deci­sions and their impact.

Contact and documentation

Contacts de la recherche à l'UTC

Direc­teur du labo­ra­toire Heu­dia­syc

Phi­lippe Bon­ni­fait

 +33 (0)3 44 23 44 81

philippe.bonnifait@utc.fr

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