Research Projects

Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Fragile Object Dexterous Manipulation

Developed MuJoCo Environment for HIL

  • Description: Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning with force feedback for improved sample efficiency in dexterous manipulation for fragile objects
  • Machine Learning Keywords: Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning, DQN
  • Robot: UR5e Simulated in Gazebo and MuJoCo
  • Status/Venue: Accepted @ ICRA2025

Learning from Human Multimodal Feedback

VR-LLM-Robot System

  • Description: A novel RLHF framework enabling robots to learn from natural language instructions (via LLM) and human emotions (via computer vision), mediated by a VR system
  • Machine Learning Keywords:RLHF, LLM, Computer Vision, Multimodal Interactions
  • Robot Embodiment:Demonstrated with a RX250 6 DOF robot arm
  • Status/Venue:VR-LLM system highlighted in Viginia Tech News and Center for Human-Computer Interaction News; Presented @ i3CE2025

Multi-agent Intelligent Spatial Planning with Central Knowledge Database

Dynamic Planning Framework

  • Description: Built an LLM-RL framework with a GPT-powered data mining pipeline to extract spatio-temporal work plans from the Amazon TEACH dataset, followed by agent-specific task allocation based on partial skill proficiency profiles
  • Machine Learning Keywords: LLM-RL, Spatio-Temporal Reasoning, Multi-Agent Task Allocation
  • Status/Venue: Presented @ i3CE2025

Knowledge Sharing and Recommendation Agentic AI

LLM Knowledge Tree Generation

  • Description: A RAG-based system retrieves text and combines it with SQL queries to extract and complete knowledge from a database. An LLM processes the results to build a tree-structured representation of safety recommendations
  • Machine Learning Keywords: Semantic Retrieval, SQL-Augmented LLM, Tree-Based Knowledge Representation, Hierarchical Knowledge Modeling
  • Status/Venue: Presented @ i3CE2025

Generalist Robot Learning with Hierarchical Knowledge Graph Extracted from Crowdsourced Internet Data

LLM-HIL Generalizable Embodied AI Learning</div>

  • Description: A generalizable embodied AI learning framework that leverages foundational models and hierarchical knowledge representation to process crowdsourced natural language instructions from the internet, minimizing supervision and data complexity for VLA/VLM
  • Machine Learning Keywords: Foundational models, VLA/ VLM, World modeling, Spatial intelligence, Generalizable Robot Learning Architecture
  • Robot Embodiment:KUKA KR120 Industrial Robot
  • Status/Venue: Journal Paper Under Review

Human-Robot Social Behavior Teaching for Close-Proximity Interactions

Paper Image 2

  • Description: Robot interaction behavior profiling and human preference study with potential user/ experienced construction workers
  • Machine Learning Keywords: Self-Supervised Learning, Imitation Learning
  • Robot Embodiment: KUKA KR120 Industrial Robot
  • Status/Venue: Journal Paper Under Review

Sample Efficiency Edge Embodied AI Learning with Hierarhical Knowledge Representations

Paper Image 2

  • Description: A scalable robot programming-by-imitation system that significantly reduces data collection costs through a cloud-based human skill acquisition and management platform, integrated with VR/motion capture-based ergonomic demonstration capture for high-fidelity and reusable micro skill learning
  • Machine Learning Keywords: Human Motion Understanding and Representation Learning, Scalable Robot Learning Infrastructure, Edge AI, Human-in-the-Loop Skill Transfer
  • Robot Embodiment: KUKA KR120 Industrial Robot
  • Status/Venue: Best Paper Award @ i3CE2024

One-shot Programming for Intent Adaptive Control

One-shot Programming

  • Description: Enabled intent-aware and adaptive robotic handovers via a one-shot/ 60-second learning paradigm with tactile gloves, integrating semi-supervised learning for data efficiency and precise human state estimation
  • Machine Learning Keywords: One-shot Learning, Semi-Supervised Learning, Internet of Things, LSTM, Sparse Input
  • Robot Embodiment: KUKA KR120 Industrial Robot
  • Status/Venue: Published in Automation in Construction (2023, Impact Factor 12.7)