Thomas Corberes
Thomas Corberes

About me

I am currently an associate researcher within the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University .

My area of research includes Legged locomotion (humanoids and quadrupeds), Trajectory Optimisation and Machine learning.

During my PhD, I worked across the entire locomotion pipeline, from vision-based perception (extracting convex surfaces from heightmaps), to trajectory planning using optimal control, and finally to low-level control through ROS Control for full system integration. I primarily used Python for prototyping and C++ for performance-critical integration. This work has been succefully transfered to the industry on humanoids by PAL robotics.

In the context of machine learning, I am experienced with JAX and PyTorch. For motion planning and control, I have worked extensively with Crocoddyl, MuJoCo, Pybullet and Pinocchio.

Projects

Perceptive locomotion through whole-body MPC and optimal region selection

Interfacing Whole-Body MPC with a Mixed-Integer SL1M for surface selection for the European h2020-Memmo project. Full integration with real-time perceptive pipeline for vision. Code available here.

Contact planning on Solo12

Real time contact planning and control of the Solo robot in 3d environments. Reduced model MPC, interacting with a mixed-integer program.

Reinforcement learning on A1

Combining Trajectory Optimisation and Reinforcement Learning. An efficient MPC is guided by high-level RL commands to reach the green ball, with heightmap information. Code available here.

Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher

The University of Edinburgh/ Heriot Watt University — July 2024 to Present

Collaboration with Dr. Steve Tonneau. Integration of a differentiable simulator into policy-learning frameworks, enabling backpropagation of gradients through simulation to improve sample efficiency compared to traditional zero-order methods for Locomotion and Manipulation. Most of the development was carried out in JAX and MuJoCo-MJX framework.

Ph.D. Informatics, IPAB

The University of Edinburgh — 2021 to 2024

PhD under the supervision of Dr. Steve Tonneau and Dr. Thomas Flayols within the Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB). Real-time synthesis of legged locomotion maneuvers in complex, unstructured en- vironments. Developed and integrated a fully autonomous locomotion pipeline including perception, motion and contact planning, and reactive control.

Master’s thesis

LAAS-CNRS (Toulouse, France) — 2020

Master’s thesis under the supervision of Nicolas Mansard. Implementation of a Model Based Predictive Controller for a quadruped robot using a reduced model dynamics.

French Graduate School of Aeronautics and Space, ISAE-SUPAERO

Toulouse, France — 2016 to 2020

Selective three year program leading to a French master’s degree, with a multidisciplinary curriculum in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, and Physics

Publications

  1. Thomas Corbères, Thomas Flayols, Pierre-Alexandre Léziart, Rohan Budhiraja, Philippe Souères, Guilhem Saurel, and Nicolas Mansard. "Comparison of predictive controllers for locomotion and balance recovery of quadruped robots". In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages 5021–5027, 2021.
  2. Fanny Risbourg1, Thomas Corbères1, Pierre-Alexandre Léziart, Thomas Flayols, Nicolas Mansard, and Steve Tonneau. "Real-time footstep planning and control of the solo quadruped robot in 3D environments". In 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pages 12950–12956, 2022. 1Joint first authors.
  3. Pierre-Alexandre Léziart, Thomas Corbères, Thomas Flayols, Steve Tonneau, Nicolas Mansard, and Philippe Souères. "Improved control scheme for the solo quadruped and experimental comparison of model predictive controllers". IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 7(4):9945–9952, 2022.
  4. Carlos Mastalli, Saroj Prasad Chhatoi, Thomas Corbères, Steve Tonneau, and Sethu Vijayakumar. "Inverse-dynamics MPC via nullspace resolution". IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 39(4):3222–3241, 2023.
  5. Jaehyun Shim, Carlos Mastalli, Thomas Corbères, Steve Tonneau, Vladimir Ivan, and Sethu Vijayakumar. "Topology-based MPC for automatic footstep placement and contact surface selection". In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages 12226–12232, 2023.
  6. Thomas Corbères, Carlos Mastalli, Wolfgang Merkt, Ioannis Havoutis, Maurice Fallon, Nicolas Mansard, Thomas Flayols, Sethu Vijayakumar, and Steve Tonneau. "Perceptive locomotion through whole-body MPC and optimal region selection". IEEE Access, 2024.
  7. Gianni Lunardi, Thomas Corbères, Carlos Mastalli, Nicolas Mansard, Thomas Flayols, Steve Tonneau, and Andrea Del Prete. "Reference-free model predictive control for quadrupedal locomotion". IEEE Access, 12:689–698, 2024.
  8. Thomas Corbères. "A Complete Framework for Agile Quadruped Locomotion: Integrating Real-Time Control, Planning, and Perception in Multi-Contact Environments". PhD thesis, The University of Edinburgh, 2024.