Dr Thierry Peynot is Associate Professor in Robotics and AI at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Chief Investigator of the QUT Centre for Robotics where he leads the Space Robotics and Mining Robotics activities. He is also Chief Investigator of the Australian Robotic Inspection and Asset Management Research Hub (ARIAM), and of the ARC Training Centre in Automated Vehicles in Rural and Remote Regions (AVR3). Prior to joining QUT he was research fellow at ACFR, University of Sydney, worked at NASA Ames and obtained his PhD from the University of Toulouse in France.

He has led multiple research programs funded by government, research institutions and industry, including mining (e.g. Caterpillar, Komatsu, Mining3), defence (e.g. BAE Systems, Rheinmetall) and space (e.g. with Boeing, ELO2 and CSIRO), developing robust perception technology for robots and autonomous vehicles that can function despite adverse environmental conditions. He has also led the development and establishment of the largest covered lunar testbed facility in Australia: QUT’s Yandiwanba and leads the QUT node of the Roo-ver program.

Thierry’s research interests include off-road ground vehicle autonomy, planetary rovers, resilient perception, sensor data fusion, GPS-denied localisation and mapping.