Damien LaRocque

Awesome Robot Learning

2026-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

Collection of links and resources in robot learning

ROSCon FR & DE 2025 highlights

2025-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

(Le texte en français se trouve ici</a>)

UVT-RS

2025-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

During the last months, I worked on uvt-rs</code></a>, my first project in Rust 🦀!

uvt-rs</code> is a collection of Rust crates for processing and interacting with Uncrewed Vehicle Trajectory (UVT) files. The UVT file format provides a lightweight way to describe trajectories of uncrewed vehicles, such as UAV, UGV, etc. It was designed as an extension of the LTR format introduced inKilometer-Scale Autonomous Navigation in Subarctic Forests: Challenges and Lessons Learned</a>.



ROS 2 Tips & Tricks
2025-07-21T00:00:00+00:00
Here are a few tips and tricks and configurations to add to your system while working with ROS 2.</p>


Using Citizen Science Data as Pre-Training for Semantic Segmentation of High-Resolution UAV Images for Natural Forests Post-Disturbance Assessment
2025-04-03T00:00:00+00:00
During the last months, I contributed to the paper Using Citizen Science Data as Pre-Training for Semantic Segmentation of High-Resolution UAV Images for Natural Forests Post-Disturbance Assessment</em></a>, published in the Classification of Forest Tree Species Using Remote Sensing Technologies: Latest Advances and Improvements</em></a> special issue of the Forests</em></a> MDPI journal.
This paper proposes a novel pre-training approach for semantic segmentation of UAV imagery, where a classifier trained on citizen science data generates over 140,000 auto-labeled images, improving model performance and achieving a higher F1 score (43.74%) than training solely on manually labeled data (41.58%). With this paper, we highlight the importance of AI for large-scale environmental monitoring of dense and vasts forested areas, such as in the province of Quebec.</p>


Artificial Intelligence Resources
2025-03-17T00:00:00+00:00
Here is a slightly curated list of learning resources and useful links in Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence and related topics.
For resources on robotics, visit the robotics resources</a> post.
If you have other great resources to suggest, feel free to contact me</a>.</p>


Robotics Resources
2025-03-17T00:00:00+00:00
Here is a slightly curated list of learning resources and useful links in robotics.
For resources on AI</em>, visit the AI resources</a> post.
If you have other great resources to suggest, feel free to contact me</a>.</p>


Christmas Tree PCB
2025-01-13T00:00:00+00:00
Towards the end of 2023, in preparation for the holidays, I designed and soldered about twenty small Christmas tree 🎄 PCBs to give to my relatives.
During this year's holidays, I took advantage of some free time to clean up and prepare the project to publish it as an open-source hardware project on GitHub</a>.</p>

  
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Proprioception Is All You Need: Terrain Classification for Boreal Forests
2024-09-28T00:00:00+00:00
My paper, Proprioception Is All You Need: Terrain Classification for Boreal Forests</em></a>, will be presented in the 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2024), in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The paper presents BorealTC</em> : a publicly available dataset containing annotated data from a wheeled UGV for various mobility-impeding terrain types typical of the boreal forest. The data was acquired in winter and spring on deep snow and silty loam, two uncommon terrains in an urban setting.</p>


Squirrels
2024-09-27T00:00:00+00:00
When I talked about my new website to my friend William Guimont-Martin</a>, he immediately had one thing in mind:</p>


Hello, World!
2024-09-21T00:00:00+00:00
Welcome on my site !
Here, I plan to regularly publish posts about programming, robotics, and electronics. I also plan to publish non-technical content.</p>