Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Rice University
Duncan Hall, MS 132
Rice University
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005
[Google Scholar]
Prospective Ph.D. students please read here.
I am an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Rice University, where I direct the Robotics and Physical Interactions Lab (Robot Lab). I am broadly interested in robotic systems that can physically interact with other robots, people, and the world. By developing algorithms in optimization, planning, learning, estimation, and control, my research is focused on efficient, robust, and generalizable manipulation systems, addressing problems that range from small scale grasping and in-hand manipulation, to large scale dual-arm manipulation, mobile manipulation, and multi-robot manipulation.
Before joining Rice CS, I finished my postdoc at Yale University, completed my Ph.D./M.Sc. at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and received my B.Eng. from Xi'an Jiaotong University.
News
2023-01-16
Our paper
"Kinodynamic Rapidly-exploring Random Forest for Rearrangement-Based Nonprehensile Manipulation"
has been accepted by IEEE-RAS International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE-RAS ICRA). Check out the video!
2022-06-30
Our paper
"Rearrangement-Based Manipulation via Kinodynamic Planning and Dynamic Planning Horizons"
has been accepted by IEEE/RSJ IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IEEE/RSJ IROS). Check out the video!
2022-02-06
We will organize a full-day workshop at IEEE-RAS ICRA 2022 on the topic of "Compliant Robot Manipulation: Challenges and New Opportunities". Distinguished speakers from both academia and industry will join to share their brilliant research progress and throughts. Poster contributions with oral presentation opportunities will be an important part of the workshop. Please read more details
here
.
2022-01-09
Our paper
"Complex In-Hand Manipulation via Compliance-Enabled Finger Gaiting and Multi-Modal Planning"
has been published by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
2021-12-17
Our work on
Robot Self-Identification
has been selected by Science Robotics as the Top 5 Editor's Picks of 2021! Read
Here
.
Group
Kejia Ren (Ph.D. Student)Podshara Chanrungmaneekul (Ph.D. Student)
Gaotian Wang (Ph.D. Student)
Erich McMillan (Master Student)
Andrew Ondara (Undergraduate Student)
Howard Qian (Undergraduate Student)
Selected Media Coverage
TechXplore: Using a virtual linkage representation algorithm to improve functionality of a robot handYale SEAS News: A robotic hand that updates itself
MIT Technology Review: Drones that perch like birds could go on much longer flights
Nature Electronics: Drones get a grip
National Public Radio: If Drones Had 'Claws,' They Might Be Able To Fly For Longer
Yahoo! News: With These New Feet-Like Landing Gear, Drones Could Grab on and Perch Like Birds or Bats
Smithsonian: These Drones Can Perch and Dangle Like Birds and Bats
Popular Mechanics: Clever New Landing Gear Allow Drones To Set Down Like Birds or Bats
Inverse: Video Shows a Drone With Talons That Hangs Upside Down Like a Bat
Selected Awards
Best Oral Paper Award, Finalist, IEEE-RAS Humanoids, 2019Mike Stillman Award, Finalist, IEEE-RAS Humanoids, 2019
Best Paper Award in Robotic Manipulation, Finalist, IEEE-RAS ICRA, 2019
Best Robotic Manipulation Paper Award, Finalist, IEEE-RAS ICRA, 2017
Junior Fellowship Award, Institute for Advanced Study, HKUST, 2017-2018
Ranked 13 in Final Match, Amazon Picking Challenge 2015
Best Student Paper Award, Finalist, IEEE-RAS ICRA, 2014
Ranked 23 globally and ranked 8 in EU, IEEEXtreme 7.0 Programming Contest
Best Cognitive Robotics Paper Award, Finalist, IEEE/RSJ IROS, 2012
Service
Rice Service:Rice Robotics Club (Faculty Advisor)
Rice's FIRST Robotics alumni chapter, FIRST at Rice (Faculty Advisor)
Graduate Admission Committee of CS
Associate Editor:
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) (2019 - present)
IEEE-RAS International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (2021, 2022)
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (2020, 2021, 2022)
IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids) (2019)
Program Committee:
Robotics: Science and Systems (2017, 2018)
Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) (2018)
RSS Pioneers (2018, 2019)
Conference:
IEEE/RSJ IROS, Session Co-Chair (Manipulation and Grasping) (2020)