Profession
Robot Sculptor

There are people whose unexpected charms and simplicity are reassuring. Gaël is one of them and emblematic of the human diversity populating this bubbling technological 21^st century. In his fifties with salt and pepper hair, modest to the core, he embodies something much more than a cliché of a Geppetto puppet master in robot form.

A promising start

Behind his mischievous glasses, he freely admits to a school career “more grasshopper than ant”, more solitary dreamer than model pupil, more experimental than methodical. Gaël Langevin maintains an authentic and natural relationship with matter, objects, mechanisms. His observation nourishes his imagination, living proof that one learns at least as much in front of the world as in front of a blackboard. « At that time I loved poking around in rubbish dumps¹, retrieving things, bringing back an old bicycle handlebar, dismantling an old tool, and then giving these objects a new life, » he admits. That curiosity found a natural outlet in sculpture, design and drawing. The artistic impulse came early. He entered the luxury sector where his talents and imagination expressed themselves fully, carving beauty, painting the ephemeral, inventing dreams, creating special effects, all that to convey the image of famous perfume brands.

A helping hand

“There’s no such thing as chance, only encounters,” wrote Paul Éluard². Langevin didn’t read his fate in the lines of his hand — but in their curves. Commissioned to create a futuristic prosthetic hand for a car advert, he modelled it using Blender, an open-source 3D software, then produced it with a 3D printer. The alchemy behind a dual destiny was bubbling under the surface.

“I have a particular fascination with hands. They are elegant, delicate, intelligent, very sensual. During art studies, we work a lot on wooden hand avatars. Classical statuary, concerned with detail and accuracy, has produced magnificent hands.« comments Gaël. His sculptor’s DNA danced with joy in front of a 3D printer. » To draw, model, and then bring the digital into the physical world — that’s magic” he declares in a perfect soundbite.

Two hands, two masters

The insight that emerges next comes from the ‘open source’ mindset and a verb he will repeat several times during our meeting: ‘share’. The lines on the hand may be the stuff of fortune tellers, but putting an entire hand online is obviously a must. “I wanted to give back to the Blender community and simply share the fruits of this work,” explains Gaël. However, this hand still felt like unfinished business. He then began the long and patient work of designing and uploading the other parts needed to build a complete robot: forearms, arms, legs, feet, torsos, heads... “My work in the luxury sector certainly pays the bills, but it doesn't completely fulfil my true self,” he jokes. “In my job, you have to constantly start over. My creations are ephemeral and only have value for a limited time. I can't bring myself to just keep running this perpetual race forward. I've found a balance with this second activity, offering a robot kit and Open Source,” he continues.

Grey matter

Gaël added microcontroller cards, also open source, to his robot's structure, which are designed to manage all of his creation's motors. He was also approached by an inventor who invited him to collaborate on his ‘MyRobotLab’ software, which is also open source. The latter will put online the software bricks that will control the robot's servo motors, even offering a voice control interface: “open your left hand”, “bend your right arm”... capabilities necessary for anyone who wants to realistically simulate human-robot interaction.

Raw material

It was now 2011. InMoov had just been created with the idea of offering online and in open source all the hardware and software components needed to assemble a real robot incorporating state-of-the-art technology and using a 3D printer. The long journey had begun. « We don't do everything that's proposed, and it's a long way from project to reality³ ». In 2025, Gaël does not know how much, by whom, or where this “robotic” content has been downloaded. Around the world, clubs of enthusiasts, academic researchers, students, and associations committed to fighting disability know about and use the invaluable resources of InMoov, version 4.0 of Ali Baba's cave and its treasures. “At robot competitions in China and elsewhere, I often see InMoov components in these robotic creatures in news reports. There are also very active Facebook pages dedicated to the use of InMoov components, created by communities I am not part of,” says Gaël with amusement. He has brought an original baby into the world that did not hang around long before flying the nest “Even though InMoov components are sold under a licence that does not allow commercialisation, we see them on eBay or AliExpress. It's illegal, but at least it proves the value of what InMoov represents, » he concludes philosophically.

A craftsman at heart

“Judging by the number of microcontroller boards shipped, there are now at least 7,000 InMoov robots around the world,” Gaël adds. « But InMoov doesn't pay the bills for me today. Putting it online has clearly helped the project grow, but it doesn't pay the bills, and I'm really not cut out for prospecting, fundraising, and all that sort of thing. I prefer communicating and sharing. Money and unlimited growth are not what drive me, here and now, » Gaël sums up.

It seems that this was not the primary goal of the project in 2011, and it's probably better that way. This open-source robotics engineer finds satisfaction in other ways. He regularly receives letters explaining how InMoov has inspired a vocation in robotics, or how a father, under the pretext of building an InMoov with his troubled child, helped him reconnect with education. “One woman even asked my permission to marry a copy of my robot (true story!). During an interview with CNN, the journalist asked me if I had given my consent. I replied that I just wanted to attend the ceremony,” he says with amusement, without specifying whether the ceremony actually took place and whether he attended.

No conversation is complete without a detour into AI. Gaël, like many, is integrating artificial intelligence into his work and into the InMoov project. His approach, like he himself, doesn’t necessarily follow the crowd. He sees AI primarily as a tool for understanding ourselves and our environments, two things essential for robotics. “Unfortunately I’m not convinced AI is heading in that direction, though,” he admits. “We might be missing an opportunity.”

Food for thought and for sharing

The InMoov adventure remains unique and can’t be categorised neatly. Gaël conceived and developed it, driven by his concern about what he denounces as “the escalation of permanent growth that a large part of humanity would like to slow down”. His response involves communication within communities of interest, sharing (the internet and open source lend themselves rather well to this), and reciprocity towards all those who share.

Beyond a simple robot, this story appears less technological than humanistic or philosophical, reinforcing the idea that use, and perhaps even creation, takes precedence over the tool itself. And besides... what better extension of humanity than its own hand? It is through our hands that we confront reality, invent tools, imagine machines, and thus rethink our relationship with the world by engaging our brains and senses, particularly our sense of touch. The robot, as a mirror of ourselves, ultimately symbolises humanity's quest to better analyse and understand itself.

Gaël loves reality and the world. He admires the beauty of hands, masters tools, designs machines, and ultimately sculpts a robot in our image: this is the original definition of an engineer.

By sharing it, he also sculpts his part of humanity's future. It is worth at least exchanging a warm handshake with him and his InMoov companion.

1. A polluting concept, fortunately almost extinct since the introduction of sensible waste management, sorting and recycling.

2. Paul Éluard (1895–1952), French poet, whose real name was Eugène Grindel.

3. Dorine (Act III, Scene 1) in ‘Le Tartuffe ou l'imposteur’ by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, (1622-1673).