Justin Carpentier

Inria, École normale supérieure, Paris, France.

Justin with Uarior, a puppy training to become a guide dog
With Uarior, a very brave puppy learning to become a guide dog.

I am a research director at Inria, specializing in robotics, and head of the Willow research group. Willow is a joint team of Inria, ENS, and CNRS, based in the Department of Computer Science at ENS in Paris. My research spans perception, learning, optimization, simulation, and control for robotics.

In September 2024, I was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for ARTIFACT, The ARTIficial Motion FACTory. The project began in September 2025. If you would like to join this research adventure, please get in touch.

Biography

I joined the Willow research group as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2018. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Gepetto research group at LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse, where I also pursued my PhD from 2014 to 2017.

My doctoral research explored the computational foundations of anthropomorphic locomotion, from the mechanisms underlying human bipedalism to new mathematical formulations for humanoid robot locomotion.

I received my degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics with highest honors from École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay in 2013. In 2014, I was a visiting student working with Katja Mombaur in the Optimization in Robotics and Biomechanics group at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Open positions

At Willow, we welcome talented postdoctoral researchers and engineers interested in tackling challenging problems in robotics. To express your interest, please complete our application form, and I will get back to you to discuss opportunities.

Research overview

In February 2023, I gave a talk to the IEEE RAS TC on Model-based Optimization for Robotics entitled Progress and Prospects in Optimisation for Learning and Control in Robotics. The talk offers an overview of our contributions to the field at that time.

Collaborators and team

I collaborate with Francis Bach, Adrien Taylor, Jean Ponce, Cordelia Schmid, Josef Sivic, and Ivan Laptev, alongside a team of talented and passionate researchers and engineers:

PhD students

Postdoctoral researchers

Engineers

Alumni

I have also had the pleasure of working with many passionate and inspiring postdoctoral researchers, PhD students, engineers, and visitors:

My earlier robotics collaborations include work with Jean-Paul Laumond, Nicolas Mansard, Olivier Stasse, Mehdi Bennalegue, Andrea Del Prete and Steve Tonneau.

Software

I am the lead developer of several open-source robotics software projects. I believe open-source software helps advance both research and society by making cutting-edge methods broadly accessible.