Integrated Master-PhD Track | Advanced Robotics

The Integrated Master-PhD Track is available within Advanced Robotics (Control and Robotics).

Students on the track will be assigned to the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N) with supervision from a member of faculty. It is within LS2N Laboratory that the students on this track would naturally progress towards funded PhD studies, subject to successful completion of the Master's degree, final acceptance by the ad hoc committee and the award of a PhD grant.
Course Content

Course content in the M1 and M2 years is closely based on the chosen Master's specialism - Advanced Robotics - whereby Integrated Master-PhD Track students have a (limited) choice of modules, plus a research module and supervised research project. Full details below.
 

Advanced Robotics

M1 Year

30 ECTS Credits per semester.
Language of instruction: English

Autumn Semester

Core Courses ECTS
Advanced and Robot Programming 4
Artificial Intelligence 6
Classical Linear Control 5
Mechanical Design Methods in Robotics 4
Modelling of Manipulators 4
Signal Processing 5
Research Seminar 0
Language Courses (1 out of 3)*
French as Foreign Language 2
Cultural and Communicational English 2
Spanish 2


* 'French as Foreign Language' except for French native speakers who will study 'Cultural and Communicational English' or Spanish (depending on sufficient demand).

In addition to the courses, students will attend scientific seminars to gain an overview of research activities in the field of control and robotics. This will enable them to identify the areas in which they wish to focus their research activities for the remainder of the programme.

Spring Semester

Core Courses ECTS
Ethics in Research and Research Methodology 4
Research project 1 7
Elective Courses (choose 4 out of 5)
Computer Vision 4
Dynamic Model Based Control 4
Mobile Robots 5
Optimization Techniques 5
Software Architecture for Robotics 4
Language Courses (1 out of 3)*
French as Foreign Language 2
Cultural and Communicational English 2
Spanish 2

* 'French as Foreign Language' except for French native speakers who will study 'Cultural and Communicational English' or Spanish (depending on sufficient demand).

NB Course content may be subject to minor changes
M2 Year

30 ECTS Credits per semester.
Language of instruction: English

Autumn Semester

Core Courses ECTS
Research project 2 8
Elective Courses (choose 5 out of 6)
Advanced Modeling of Robots 6
Autonomous Vehicle 4
Advanced Visual Geometry 4
Optimal Kinematic Design 4
Soft Robot Modelling 4
Task-based Control 5
Language Courses (1 out of 3)*
French as Foreign Language 2
Cultural and Communicational English 2
Spanish 2


* 'French as Foreign Language' except for French native speakers who will study 'Cultural and Communicational English' or Spanish (depending on sufficient demand).

Spring Semester

ECTS
Master Thesis/Internship                                                  30

NB Course content may be subject to minor changes

Download syllabus | Integrated Master-PhD Track - Advanced Robotics


 
Research Environment

This programme relies on Centrale Nantes’ faculty and the research facilities of the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N).

About the LS2N

The LS2N Laboratory was launched with a single objective: bring together Nantes' research expertise in computer science and cybernetics to develop digital sciences, inclusive of other disciplines and taking account of the social challenges involved. The five areas of research expertise:
 

  • Industry of the future | systems engineering, control, human factors, management, software engineering, robotics
  • Management of energy and environmental impact  | embedded systems design, eco-design of robots, power grids, adaptable data centres
  • Life Sciences  | medical imaging, neuronal signal processing, genomic data analysis,  biological network modelling, artificial organ design, automation of hospital equipment
  • Vehicle and mobility | global vehicle automation, behavioural and usage modelling, traffic optimization
  • Design, culture and digital society  | system design for the digital society, design of new interactions and links with digital artefacts, analysis of practices and interaction with digital artefacts
► Learn more

Major Research Projects

► AVINECK is a bio-inspired research project bringing together LS2N (ReV team) and Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. The goal is to study the geometry and capabilities of a bird's neck through robotics formalism. It has led to numerous combinations of tensegrity modules, and their impact on the workspace and stiffness control. Learn more

► SAMURAI is a project involving LS2N (Armen team), Inria and MIS (University of Picardie). This project aims to help mapping unknown environment through cooperation between autonomous ground robots and aerial drones. Learn more

► STORM is an industrial project on maritime robotics between LS2N (Armen team) and various companies. The goal is to create a tele-operated system able to navigate inside a wind farm and deploy a remotely operated vehicle (underwater ROV) to perform underwater inspection of such offshore structures.
 

Research Facilities

The "Autonomous Vehicles" research facility allows the LS2N to integrate and evaluate the approaches under development in autonomous mobile robotics around the themes of environment perception, understanding of scenarios and multi-sensor referenced control. The platform includes 3 instrumented vehicles (sensors, computers and man-machine interfaces), 2 of which are fully robotized by the "Drive-by-wire" robotization kit developed by the ARMEN research group in the LS2N.

As part of an industrial research chair with Renault, which aims to improve the performance of electric propulsion in motor vehicles, Centrale Nantes has an electric vehicle test bench specifically for automotive electric propulsion. It comprises of test engines supplied by Renault and a control, power electronics and dynamic load environment to simulate driving situations.

PhD Opportunities
  • Contribution to wide angle visual perception for mobile robots and self driving cars ► Learn more
  • Multi-sensor-based control in Intelligent Parking applications ► Learn more
  • Design of high-speed robots with drastically reduced energy consumption ► Learn more
  • Dynamic Control and Singularities of Rigid Bearing-Based Formations of Quadrotors ► Learn more
  • Dynamic Visual Servoing for Fast Robotics Arms ► Learn more
  • Contributions to utilize a Cobot as intermittent contact haptic interfaces in virtual reality ► Learn more
  • Cable-Driven Parallel Robots with Large Translation and Orientation Workspaces ► Learn more
  • Collaborative Mobile Cable-Driven Parallel Robots ► Learn more
What our students and graduates say

Andrea, PhD Student 2021-2024 | Master EMARO Advanced Robotics, Class of 2021

Meet the Programme Coordinator

Pierre-Emmanuel Hladik Pierre-Emmanuel Hladik is an Assistant Professor at Centrale Nantes and he carries out his research activity at the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N) in the STR team. He previously spent 14 years in Toulouse at the Laboratory of Architecture and Analysis of Systems (LAAS-CNRS). He teaches in the field of autonomous embedded systems. His research interests deal with the modelling and verification of constraint concurrent systems, and in particular scheduling and methods to design safe systems.


 

How to apply for the Integrated Master-PhD Track

There is no need to apply for the track before arriving at Centrale Nantes for your Master's programme. Your choice will be taken into account during the first year of the Master's programme so as to orient your laboratory research activities and the choice of elective modules towards the PhD thesis subject.
Published on April 26, 2024 Updated on October 24, 2024