Nicolas Pouliot is a mechanical engineer with an MS degree in robotics and mechanism design. After an initial five years in the aerospace industry, he joined Institut de recherche d’Hydro-Québec (IREQ) in 2002. As a research and development project leader in the inspection and maintenance robotics unit, he is responsible for developing, testing and deploying various solutions for challenging power line inspections, including LineScout and several nondestructive testing (NDT) technologies.