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Kangyao Huang  

PhD Candidate | AI Researcher | Aircraft & Robotics Engineer


I am an AI researcher and robot engineer from China. Currently, I am pursuing a PhD degree in Computer Science at Tsinghua University(THU) under the supervision of Prof. Huaping Liu. Besides, I hold an MRes degree in Control from ACSE, the University of Sheffield(UoS), UK., supervised by Prof. John Oyekan, and a BEng degree in Aerospace from Northwestern Polytechnical University(NWPU), China. Before my PhD work, I had several years start-up experience in aerospace and automation industrial sectors, serving as a UAV designer and technical director.

My current research interest is in robot learning for virtual and real world practice. I also follow ideas on aerial robotics, swarm robotics, and evolutionary computation. My technological vision is to empower tranditional manufacturing with artificial intelligence technology. I would like to work with any excellent partners, if you have any ideas, please do not hesitate to email me directly.

Top Open-source Projects



emNavi (Embodied Navigation)

Work with Colleagues @TinyTech Co., Ltd. (超微智导)

Brief: emNavi is an open-source project derived from "Embodied Navigation". The vision of emNavi is to re-construct and optimize the navigation-related SoTA (state of the art) algorithms and apply them on robots, especially aerial robots, to promote the implementation of Embodied AI on mobile robots.


Selected Publications



CompetEvo: Towards Morphological Evolution from Competition

Kangyao Huang, Di Guo, Xinyu Zhang, Xiangyang Ji, Huaping Liu,

International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2024


Stimulate the Potential of Robots via Competition

Kangyao Huang, Di Guo, Xinyu Zhang, Xiangyang Ji, Huaping Liu,

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2024


A Multi-modal Deformable Land-air Robot for Complex Environments

Xinyu Zhang, Yuanhao Huang, Kangyao Huang, Xiaoyu Wang, Dafeng Jin, Huaping Liu, Jun Li,

IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics(AIM) 2023


Coupled Modeling and Fusion Control for a Multi-modal Deformable Land-air Robot

Xinyu Zhang, Yuanhao Huang, Kangyao Huang, Ziqi Zhao, Jingwei Li, Huaping Liu, Jun Li,

arXiv


Path Planning for Air-Ground Robot Considering Modal Switching Point Optimization

Xiaoyu Wang, Kangyao Huang, Xinyu Zhang, Honglin Sun, Wenzhuo Liu, Huaping Liu, Jun Li,

International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS) 2023


智能飞行汽车关键技术及发展趋势 - State-of-the-art and Technical Trends of Intelligent Flying Cars

Xinyu Zhang, Songsong Rong, Jun Li, Deyi Li, Huaping Liu, Yuanhao Huang, Kangyao Huang,

中国科学:技术科学, Science China-Technological Sciences, 2023 Cover Paper


Intelligent Amphibious Ground-aerial Vehicles: State of the Art Technology for Future Transportation

Xinyu Zhang, Jiangeng Huang, Yuanhao Huang, Kangyao Huang, Lei Yang, Yan Han, Li Wang, Huaping Liu, Jianxi Luo, Jun Li,

IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, 2022 Review IF: 14


Bio-inspired Multi-agent Model and Optimization Strategy for Collaborative Aerial Transport

Kangyao Huang, Jingyu Chen, John Oyekan, Xinyu Zhang,

Chinese Intelligent Automation Conference (CIAC) 2021 Best Student Paper


Decentralised Aerial Swarm for Adaptive and Energy Efficient Transport of Unknown Loads

Kangyao Huang, Jingyu Chen, John Oyekan,

Swarm and Evolutionary Computation, 2021 IF: 8.2



Projects



the Implementation of Flying Car for Ground-aerial Transportation

Partners: @School of Vehicle and Mobility, THU @Department of Computer Science and Technology, THU @Suzhou Automobile Research Institute-CN @Singapore University of Technology and Design @Bingo Intelligence Co., Ltd. @Fullymax Co., Ltd. @XY-UAV Co., Ltd. @RoboSense Co., Ltd.

Project Principal: Xinyu Zhang, Project Technical Leader: Kangyao Huang, Director: Jun Li,

Other participants: Qihao Zhu, Qingjing Meng, Bo Cui, Songsong Rong, Haowen Shen, Guole Li, Huaping Liu, Jianxi Luo, Dafeng Jin, Jun Yang, Shuzhi Ge, Weiguo Yang, Yu Wan, Zhiqiang Yang, Zhenlong Ding, Xiaofeng Xu, Jiang Qian, Chaoyang Ha, Yuanhao Huang, Qiujiang Wu, Xingang Wu, Qifan Tan, Mo Zhou, Yang Shen, Li Wang, Yan Han, Zhaosheng Huang, Zhiwei Li, Lei Yang, Linxun Shi, Dazhong Xu, Kai Tang, et cetera.

We successfully developed the first generation of Tsinghua Mengshi intelligent flying car. This vehicle is the world's first pure electric rotorcraft unmanned flying vehicle with integrated intelligent driving function. We follow the core design concept "lightweight, high loadability". It is a three-dimensional intelligent transportation vehicle designed for especially tailored for low-altitude flight and urban travel. The vehicle achieves functions such as aerial flight, ground driving, land-air transition, and unmanned aerial and ground driving.


Autonomous Driving Architecture towards SCSTSV

Director: Qifan Tan, Xinyu Zhang, Jun Li, @New Technology Concept Vehicles, THU

Brief: Towards the Smart City-Smart Transportation-Smart Vehicles(SCSTSV), we focuses on the key areas of autonomous driving technology, particularly in the design and optimization of architectures for perception, decision-making, and control. Recognizing the challenges faced by autonomous driving systems, such as accurate perception of the surrounding environment, rapid and reliable decision-making, and effective vehicle control, I proposed a comprehensive architecture that integrates perception, decision-making, and control into a unified framework, further enhancing system performance through the integration of road testing equipment.


Solar-powered UAV for Long Duration Cruising

Work with Colleagues @Bingo Intelligence Co., Ltd.

Brief: This research focused on enhancing the endurance of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by analyzing their aerodynamic characteristics and optimizing their aerodynamic design. A key aspect of the study involved redesigning the aerodynamic shape to improve efficiency. Additionally, I developed a dynamic power system with low vortex drag variable-pitch propellers to adapt to varying wind speeds during flight. By integrating these innovations, the UAVs can harness solar energy more effectively and sustain longer flight durations, enabling them to operate efficiently across diverse environmental conditions. This research contributes to the advancement of renewable energy-powered UAV technology, offering potential applications in various fields such as environmental monitoring, aerial photography, and telecommunications.

We honor the memory of Zhaoxi Wang, one of the founding members of our team, whose dedication and vision continue to inspire us as we move forward, and his spirit will forever remain an integral part of our journey, just like this aircraft did.


Auto-Patralling UAV Platform

Work with Colleagues @Bingo Intelligence Co., Ltd.

Brief: This project focused on the development of an autonomous inspection drone system for airports. This project encompassed the overall design of the airport system and the design and production of electromechanical controls. We prioritized the autonomous inspection functionality of the drones. Through a comprehensive approach balancing airport safety and efficiency, we devised a complete system including structural design of the drones, development of electromechanical control systems, and optimization of inspection algorithms. This system not only enables comprehensive inspection of airport facilities but also autonomously responds to and alerts to anomalies.


Oil-powered Variable-pitch Quadrotor

This is my BEng dissertation. Notably, this is the first successful flight of oil-powered rotary-wing UAV utilizing variable-pitch control in China. We finished it at the end of 2015. Work with teammates Fanjie Kong, Jingdong Ma.

Brief: I participated a groundbreaking project focused on the development of a oil-powered variable-pitch multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This project involved the comprehensive design and prototyping testing of the UAV. Our efforts encompassed the integration of advanced variable-pitch technology with traditional oil-powered UAV systems, leading to a novel and efficient aerial platform. We use gears and belts as the power transmission method, where belts can effectively reduce the vibrations generated by the engine. The successful flight testing signifies a significant milestone in the domestic UAV industry, showcasing the feasibility and potential of variable-pitch control in enhancing the performance and versatility of oil-powered UAVs.


Education


 2022~now, 

PhD candidate in Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, China

 Dissertation: 

Robot Interactive Learning

 2019~2020, 

MRes in Control & Systems Engneering, ACSE, the University of Sheffied, UK

 Dissertation: 

Cooperative Transport by Swarm Robots

 2012~2016, 

BEng in Aircraft Design, School of Astronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

 Dissertation: 

Oil-powered Quadrotor


Experiences


2015~2019, 

Co-Founder @Bingo Intelligence Co. Ltd., Xi'an, ShaanXi, China.

2020~2022, 

Research assistant @Institute for New Technology Concept Vehicles, THU, Beijing, China