Olivier Chocron was born in Gennevilliers, France, in 1969 and graduated (M.Sc. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering) from Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), respectively in 1995 and 2000. From 2000 to 2001, he was a post-doctoral fellow and lecturer at the MIT Laboratory of Space and Field Robotics and Mechanical Engineering. department (Cambridge, MA, United States). Since 2002, he has been an associate professor at the National Engineering School of Brest (Brest, France), in the department of mechatronics. He teaches robotics and several engineering sciences. He is now a member of the Dupuy de Lôme Research Institute (IRDL, CNRS UMR 6027) in Brest. His current research interests include mechatronic design, nonlinear model-based control, vector propulsion of autonomous underwater robots , as well as robotic systems optimization through task-based design using the artificial evolution.