Dr Kunpeng Yao

Profile

I am currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Robotics at the School of Computer Science.

Prior to this, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Newman Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), U.S. and a postdoctoral researcher at the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory (LASA), EPFL, Switzerland. I received my Ph.D. degree in Robotics, Control, and Intelligent Systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2022.

I am the recipient of an SNSF Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship (Swiss National Science Foundation), DAAD AInet Fellow, EPFL EDRS PhD Distinction Nomination, Ville de Lausanne Prize Nomination.

I am a Fellow of Advance HE (FHEA), member of IEEE, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and Society for the Neural Control of Movement.

I am an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), and IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).

Research interests

My primary research interests include robotic dexterous grasping and manipulation, task and motion planning, tactile sensing, and human motor control. I am particularly interested in enhancing the dexterity of robotic systems, which is a critical research frontier significant to the broad adoption of robots in our society.

Achieving generalizable manipulation skills is crucial for reducing robot deployment costs and enabling automation across diverse industries, from flexible manufacturing to healthcare and domestic assistance. Inspired by the human ability to skilfully manipulate objects through coordinated sensorimotor control, I aim to develop generalizable and scalable manipulation skills for robots through platform-agnostic algorithms that afford dexterity across tasks, environments, and systems. Specifically, I am interested in (1) modelling generalized multi-modal skill primitives, (2) context-aware adaptive task and motion planning, (3) generalizing robot skills through transfer learning, and (4) designing versatile robotic manipulators.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, and Intelligent Systems
• M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
• B.Sc. in Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering

Professional memberships

• Member, IEEE
• Member, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS)
• Fellow, Advance HE (FHEA)

Current postgraduate researchers

• Tong Yao