PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Reymond Clavel

Reymond Clavel was a Swiss roboticist and EPFL professor who led the team that invented the Delta robot, a three-armed parallel robot used in packaging, pharmaceutical and food industries and in robotic surgery. He earned a mechanical engineering degree at EPFL in 1973, worked in industry research and development at Hermes Precisa, and returned to EPFL in 1981; he directed its Laboratory of Robotics Systems from 1993 and remained a professor until 2013. Demaurex licensed the Delta robot in 1987, and Clavel won the JIRA Award in 1989, the Golden Robot Award in 1999 and the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award in 2024. He died in June 2025.

Born
1950
Died
2025
Works
181
Citations
2,683
h-index
26
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1950–1973

    Mechanical engineering at EPFL

    Born in 1950 in Oulens-sous-Échallens, Switzerland, he earns a degree in mechanical engineering from EPFL in 1973.

  2. 1981

    Assistant professor at EPFL

    In 1981, after years of research and development at Hermes Precisa International in Yverdon-les-Bains, he returns to EPFL as an assistant professor.

  3. 1985–1989

    Inventing the Delta robot

    In 1985, he leads the EPFL team that invents the parallel Delta robot, whose three arms and gripping device handle small, light objects such as chocolates. Swiss company Demaurex licenses it in 1987 for the packaging industry, and its applications come to include pharmaceutical and food industries and robotic surgery. The Japan Industrial Robot Association gives him its JIRA Award in 1989.

  4. 1991–1993

    Professor and LSRO director

    In 1991, he completes a PhD in robotics at EPFL with a thesis on a fast parallel robot with four degrees of freedom. In 1993, he becomes full professor of microengineering and director of the Laboratoire de Systèmes Robotiques (LSRO). His research there covers parallel robotics, high-speed and high-precision robotics, and medical and surgical robotics.

  5. 1999

    Golden Robot Award

    In 1999, he receives the Golden Robot Award sponsored by ABB for his work on the Delta robot, and ABB Flexible Automation begins selling its Delta robot, the FlexPicker.

  6. 2013

    Retiring as professor emeritus

    In 2013, he retires from his EPFL professorship, delivers his honorary lecture, and is named Professor Emeritus. Over his career, he authors some 30 patents.

  7. 2024

    The Engelberger Robotics Award

    In 2024, he receives the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award from the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) for his role in inventing the Delta robot concept, together with Marc-Olivier Demaurex, former CEO of Demaurex Robotics. EPFL hosts the presentation at a campus ceremony attended by EPFL president Martin Vetterli.

  8. June 2025

    Death in June 2025

    He dies in June 2025. Dean Ali H. Sayed of EPFL's School of Engineering calls him an innovative researcher whose innovations transformed the world of robotics, and a tribute by colleagues including Aude Billard and Auke Ijspeert appears in IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine in September 2025.

Career

  1. Until 1981Hermes Precisa International
  2. 1981–2013EPFLAssistant Professor, Full Professor

Education

  1. 1991EPFLPhD in Robotics
  2. 1973EPFLDegree in Mechanical Engineering

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. A Fast Robot with Parallel Geometry1988 · Medical Entomology and Zoology · 239 citations
  2. The WalkTrainer—A New Generation of Walking Reeducation Device Combining Orthoses and Muscle Stimulation2008 · IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering · 163 citations
  3. Kinematic calibration of the parallel Delta robot1998 · Robotica · 142 citations
  4. Argos: A Novel 3-DoF Parallel Wrist Mechanism2000 · The International Journal of Robotics Research · 117 citations
  5. Conception d'un robot parallèle rapide à 4 degrés de liberté1991 · 107 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes EPFL. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes EPFL. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes EPFL. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  4. Universities had a net outflow of 2,068 moves in AI careersIncludes EPFL. Our estimates of career flows and median h-index across universities and companies in AI, including the role of joint appointments and earlier academic jobs.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Reymond Clavel yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Reymond Clavel - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Reymond Clavel receives Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Award - EPFL actu.epfl.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. EPFL mourns pioneering roboticist Reymond Clavel - EPFL actu.epfl.ch. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Delta robot - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. In Memoriam: Prof. Reymond Clavel [Society News] - IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine ramagazine.ieee.org. Checked 20 October 2026.