Sebastien Cotton

Leading the development of the next generation humanoid robots...

Led and grew the Hardware Engineering division composed of 6 key departments: Mechatronics, Robotics System, Integration and Test, Electrical, Surgical Instruments and Lifecycle. The Hardware division is responsible for the creation and introduction of new surgical robots and accessories to an FDA regulated market.

Responsible for the robotics hardware division. Defined NVIDIA robotics product roadmap and built the team from the ground up to execute on this roadmap. Market analysis. Drove alignment between hardware, software engineering, marketing and business development. Architected from the ground up and announced at NVIDIA GTC Keynote in March 21 Nova Orin, NVIDIA's first Autonomous Mobile Robot compute and sensor architecture, powered by AI, and aimed at accelerating robotics development. Collaborate with NVIDIA Venture branch to identify and evaluate potential funding/acquisition of external robotics companies.

Led the Systems Architecture and Systems Test and Integration teams. In this role, I led a team of manager and highly-skilled systems architects to define, architect and test our future spatial computer hardware platforms. I also drove the Magic Leap Research and Development committee in charge of defining new technology for future products I maintained and developed strategic relationships with product peers and engineering, business and design teams to define product requirements and architecture. My team managed high-level hardware trade-offs and drive alignment across cross-functional engineering teams to meet program objectives. I was also in charge of all the business operations of the Systems Engineering team (budget, team development, career development...)

In addition to leading the Systems Test and Integration team, I managed some of the key activities of the Systems Architecture team, which is in charge of defining the next generation of product at Magic Leap. In this role, I was responsible for leading a subset of the Architecture team to develop and deliver some critical features of our next product ML2.

Built from the ground up the Systems Test and Integration team. Led a cross-disciplinary team (Mechanical, Electrical, Software, Computer Vision, Robotics and Graphics engineers) of 10+ engineers to develop a fully automated test platform to test and verify the hardware and software integration of Magic Leap products and measure key performance KPIs. This platform has been critical to the launch of Magic Leap first spatial computer: ML1.

Robotics Unlimited was a technology provider for some of the world largest toy companies. In my role, I oversaw all business operations: Engineering, marketing, legal, accounting, product development and manufacturing. Led multi-disciplinary team of hardware and software engineers toward creation of unique design and integration of external components . Worked with overseas suppliers and contract manufacturers. Managed third-party providers. Patented 4 new technologies. Received 3 major business awards. Developed relationships with major toy companies.

Co-Principal Investigator and Lead Scientist of a 3 year project aimed at developed running robot. This project was funded by DARPA. through the Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program. Own world speed record for a legged robot (45mph). Managed a multi-disciplinary team of Ph.Ds and engineers. Co-Author of 2 proposals aimed toward humanoid robots for disaster response and funded by the NSF and DARPA

Developed physics based simulation and dynamic walking / balance control algorithms for humanoid robots M2V2 and Robonaut in collaboration with the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Wrote Ph.D Thesis “Modeling, Identification and Dynamic of the Center of Mass of Humanoid Robots”. Developed full body controller for the FUJITSU HOAP3 humanoid robot, low-level and high-level controllers in a real time environment.

Taught 3 classes ( >230 hours, >240 students) in the Computer Science department at the undergraduate and graduate levels ( Algorithmic, C-Programming, Network and Telecommunications).