Hi, I'm

Antoine Weill--Duflos

Head of Technology and Applications @ Haply Robotics

I lead technology and applications at Haply Robotics in Montreal, where we build haptic robots that let people physically feel and interact with the digital world. Our products are used by 150+ customers including Fortune 500s, we have won CES Innovation Awards multiple years running, and we work with some of the biggest names in tech and robotics to push physical AI forward.

I hold a PhD from Sorbonne Université (Paris) and an engineering degree from Arts et Métiers ParisTech. My research took me from micro and nano teleoperation to haptic device design, perception studies, and human-robot interaction, which eventually brought me to Canada for a postdoc at McGill’s Shared Reality Lab. Along the way, I co-authored a few patents, published a bunch of papers, and I teach haptics, engineering, and human-machine interaction at a few Canadian universities.

Outside of work, I run a self-hosted homelab that I blog about, tinker with home automation and open-source projects, and occasionally build things that have nothing to do with haptics.

Interests

Haptic perception & devices
Physical AI & teleoperation
Self-hosted infrastructure
Open hardware

Education

PhD in Robotics 2017
Sorbonne Université (Paris)
MSc in Robotics and Advanced Systems 2013
Sorbonne Université (Paris)
Engineering degree 2013
Arts et Métiers ParisTech (Lille & Paris)

Skills

Haptics & Force Feedback

Tactile rendering, perception, device design

Robotics & Mechatronics

Hardware, control systems, embedded firmware

Software Engineering

C/C++, Python, Rust, Java, web

CAD & Manufacturing

Solidworks, Catia, machining, 3D printing

Infrastructure & DevOps

Docker, GitOps, self-hosting, networking

Projects

Jan 1, 2024

Haply Inverse3

The Haply Inverse3 is a 3-DOF haptic device with great force feedback performances and high portability.

Dec 31, 2023

Haply 2diy

The Haply 2diy is an affordable plannar haptic device with great force feedback performances.

Jun 11, 2020

Broadcasting Haptic

I investigate solutions to facilitate the authoring and demonstration of haptic effect in remote situations.

Oct 12, 2019

3D printed haptic illusions

We propose a series of haptic illusions and demonstrations that can be fabricated using any FDM 3D printer. Once printed, they can be fully assembled by hand.

Oct 12, 2019

Haptic for OR/ICU

At present, the operating room (OR) and intensive care unit (ICU) are noisy environments, exacerbated by frequent alarms. Regardless of whether the alarms are valid or false, all command attention, raise stress, and are often irrelevant to the responsibilities of individual clinicians. To cope with these problems, we are investigating the possibility of using audio only for those alarms that should be announced to the entire team, but delivering other alarm cues individually, through haptics vibrations.

Oct 12, 2019

Haptic device for sensory reeducation

Nerve damage, frequently caused by injury, can result in the loss of sensorimotor functions in certain parts of the hand. After suturing the nerve, unpleasant sensations on contact, including tingling and electric shocks are often felt. Following nerve regrowth, it is necessary to re-train the brain to interpret the signals from these nerves correctly. This project involves the design of haptic devices to help in this process of sensory reeducation, which can involve two phases, depending on the severity of the loss of sensitivity: relearning how to localize sensations, and differentiation of shapes and textures in the identification of objects.

Oct 12, 2019

Wearable Haptic devices

Oct 12, 2019

HapticPhonemes

The tactile sense can be used as a channel for general communication, especially in contexts where the visual and auditory modalities are occupied with other tasks or compromised. We propose a new method for communicating generic words through the sense of touch that relies on delivering vibration patterns, representing the phonemes composing the words, to the user’s skin through two vibrotactile transducers worn on the forearm. The novelty of this technique is that vibration patterns are created from the audio of the corresponding English phoneme, resulting in vibration patterns that resemble physical characteristics when uttering the phoneme during normal speech.

Oct 12, 2019 Haptics

BarryWhaptics

Biased perceptions of others are known to negatively influence the outcomes of social and professional interactions in many regards. This project explores how haptic effects, generated from speech, could attenuate listeners’ perceived voice-related biases.

Oct 16, 2017