Oussama Khatib: A Deep Dive into Robotics

On this Monday afternoon, more than 120 people have gathered by invitation in the amphitheater of the Village des Sciences to attend a significant event in the world of robotics. In a few minutes, Oussama Khatib, director of the Stanford Robotics Laboratory, will deliver a lecture titled “The Age of Human-Robot Collaboration.” An inaugural lecture in the purest tradition of the day’s highlight: the ceremony conferring an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpellier upon this internationally renowned researcher.

Getting Started in France

“One of the fathers of modern robotics, a pioneer and visionary.” It is with these words that Philippe Poignet, director of the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM), begins his tribute to his American colleague. A speech co-authored with his two colleagues, Vincent Creuze and Philippe Fraisse, which highlights how this honorary doctorate celebrates the collaboration between two teams—not to mention between two countries. For Oussama Khatib is not only familiar with France but also with Montpellier, where he first arrived in 1969 after spending his youth in Syria.

He stayed there long enough to earn a master’s degree in electronics and automation before moving to Toulouse, where he completed his dissertation. During that time, he developed a new mathematical method known as the “potential field” method, which revolutionized the way robots move. This groundbreaking work earned him a spot in a postdoctoral program at the prestigious Stanford University in California, where he has remained ever since. Fifty years of research and innovation followed, making Oussama Khatib one of the most visionary robotics researchers of his generation, as attested by Philippe Fraisse, who collaborated with him for many years: “He was the first to understand the importance of human-robot interaction and the scientific challenges that must be overcome so that robotics can contribute to technical and social progress in our modern societies.”

Reaching for the Moon with Ocean One

But it is undoubtedly his latest creation—or rather, his latest “creation”—that has made the biggest splash: the Ocean One diving robot. Let’s rewind to 2016. We are off the coast of Toulon aboard theAndré Malraux, the vessel of the French Department of Underwater and Submarine Archaeological Research ( DRASSM). On deck, excitement is building among the archaeologists, eager to see the star of this mission in action. A two-meter-long orange body weighing two hundred kilograms, eyes equipped with cameras, two seven-jointed arms extended by interchangeable hands and controlled via haptic interfaces capable of transmitting tactile sensations to the operator. Ocean One is as surprising for its humanoid silhouette as it is for the sophistication of its equipment.

Surrounded by archaeologists, Oussama Khatib is talking with Vincent Creuze, a researcher in underwater robotics. Together, they are finalizing the last details of this historic dive. In a few moments, Ocean One and Speedy, the LIRMM robot, will set out to explore the wreck of the Lune, a ship from the reign of Louis XIV that sank in 1664 and now lies at a depth of 91 meters.“It was a relatively shallow depth ,”explains the Montpellier native. “The goal of these initial tests was to demonstrate that Ocean One was capable of retrieving and handling objects underwater with the same delicacy as an archaeologist.”

This initial success paves the way for several years of collaboration between the two researchers and their respective research labs, with the Stanford researcher focused on a single goal: taking Ocean One to a depth of 1,000 meters, where human divers cannot go. A goal nearly achieved in February 2022 in an underwater canyon off the coast of Cannes. There, thanks to the collaboration between DRASSM andArthur —Vincent Creuze’s latest prototype—the American humanoid robot dived to 852 meters.“Aboard the AlfredMerlin, DRASSM’s new vessel, Ocean One is truly in its element. The entire environment has been designed for him so that, together with Arthur, he can work optimally and achieve the goals Oussama has set for himself,” explains Vincent Creuze.

Promoting Robotics

The news quickly spread like wildfire throughout the small world of robotics and far beyond.“Oussama Khatib is an extremely generous researcher who has done—and continues to do—a great deal to promote robotics around the world,” says Vincent Creuze. “Everything he produces is immediately made available to the scientific community.” ” And indeed, when the Stanford researcher isn’t at sea, he’s crisscrossing the globe by air, always between conferences, to offer advice and lead seminars at the many universities, foundations, and companies vying for his time. In France, he has served on the Strategic Research Council since 2014, tasked with informing the French government’s decisions regarding national research strategy.

A schedule as busy as a minister’s does not prevent him from devoting as much time as possible to his students—“to whom he is extremely attentive,” notes Vincent Creuze—but also, and above all, to his role as president of the prestigious International Foundation for Robotics Research (IFRR). A foundation he has relied on to developISER, an international symposium on experimental robotics held every two years since 1989 and which has taken place on every continent: Malta, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Delhi, Sydney, Honolulu, Morocco, and even Toulouse in 1991.

“This symposium is truly his brainchild. It is an event that is both highly selective—with fewer than sixty papers submitted—and one that allows young researchers to meet the world’s leading robotics experts. ” This makes it all the more gratifying to count a scientist like Oussama Khatib among the honorary doctors of the University of Montpellier. In March 2022, he stated in the pages of the newspaper Le Monde:“What do I envision? Fleets of humanoid robots working in concert under the supervision of one or more operators to perform tasks that are risky for humans. That is the path. That will be the future.”