Urban Perching with a Hybrid Aerial Gripper
Contributed vision and pose-estimation pipelines for an IROS 2026 accepted aerial manipulation system that combines compliant grasping with load-bearing perching.
Project page / PDF / Details
Ziyi Wang
Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
I work on robotics systems that have to run on real hardware: computer vision, embedded software, perception pipelines, and control for aerial and humanoid robots. In June 2026, I joined BrainCo as a Robot Learning Research Engineer. I am interested in reliable autonomy at the boundary between sensing, planning, and physical interaction.
News
- 2026 Joined BrainCo as a Robot Learning Research Engineer in June.
- 2026 Our paper Grasping as Anchoring was accepted to IEEE/RSJ IROS 2026.
- 2025 Selected for the Ellery B. Paine Outstanding Junior Award in UIUC ECE.
- 2025 Joined Advanced Control Research Lab to work on aerial robot perching.
- 2025 Continued as a course assistant for ECE 391: Computer Systems Engineering.
Selected Research
Safety-Critical Control with Online System ID
Built RGB-D perception and embedded sensing support for object-aware whole-body teleoperation and safety-critical humanoid control.
Projects
6-DOF Robotic Arm Trajectory Validation
Manipulator bring-up and trajectory validation for a RoboMaster arm, including joint testing, communication debugging, and figure-eight task-space motion.
Robot Dynamics and Control Final Project
Task-space PD, impedance-style interaction control, gravity/friction compensation, and force control for a CRS manipulator task sequence.
Experience
- Robot Learning Research Engineer, BrainCo, June 2026 - Present.
- Course Assistant, ECE 391: Computer Systems Engineering, UIUC.
- Embedded Team Lead, Illini RoboMaster.
- Software and DevOps Intern, Laplace AI Lab Inc.