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Ricky Ruijiao Li
Contact
Robotics Research Group
School of Computer Science and Electric Engineering
University of Essex (Colchester Campus),
Colchester, UK
Email: rlib [at] essex[dot]ac[dot]uk
Ruijiao Li is currently a Robotics Engineer at Shanghai Industry and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science. He received his Master degree in Robotics within Human Centred Robotics Group in the School of Computer Science and Electric Engineering at the University of Essex. His research is on autonomous navigation and human-machine interaction for assistive mobile robots. He received my BSc Artificial Intelligence degree (Honour) from the University of Liverpool in 2012. He also received a dual bachelor degree in Computer Science from Xi`an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China.
He is a member of IEEE, a member share control of the IEEE System, Man and Cybernetics Society, a member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.
His research interests include autonomous navigation, human robot interaction, planing algorithms, formal methods, robot perception, agent and multiagent systems for robotics, knowledge representation, probabilistic robotics, cognitive robotics, ageing technology etc.
Research Projects
Research Projects
1. Navigation for an intelligent wheelchair- Localisation by AMCL
1. Navigation for an intelligent wheelchair- Localisation by AMCL
In this research we implemented a ROS based autonomous navigation system for the wheelchair with with an embedded computer, sensors, control board and network adapter. The wheelchair itself contains on-board batteries, joystick, differential driving motors, power switcher. The wheelchair system has two layered sections as shown in Figure 4.2: the low level section and high level section. The two sections can communicate with each other through TCP/IP server-client through network connection. The low level section consists of a Trim-slice mini computer. The Trim-slice is connected with a joystick controller, a mode switcher, motors, and sensors (two Hokuyo laser range finder, a YEI-3D space sensor and two optical wheel encoders. The system consist of map building, exploration, global planner, local planner, navigator. GMapping SLAM is employed. for map building. For exploration, grid based frontier approach implemented to explore unknown environment with SLAM. The global planner is based on grid map with A* search algorithm while the local planner encapsulates a DWA implementation.
In this research we implemented a ROS based autonomous navigation system for the wheelchair with with an embedded computer, sensors, control board and network adapter. The wheelchair itself contains on-board batteries, joystick, differential driving motors, power switcher. The wheelchair system has two layered sections as shown in Figure 4.2: the low level section and high level section. The two sections can communicate with each other through TCP/IP server-client through network connection. The low level section consists of a Trim-slice mini computer. The Trim-slice is connected with a joystick controller, a mode switcher, motors, and sensors (two Hokuyo laser range finder, a YEI-3D space sensor and two optical wheel encoders. The system consist of map building, exploration, global planner, local planner, navigator. GMapping SLAM is employed. for map building. For exploration, grid based frontier approach implemented to explore unknown environment with SLAM. The global planner is based on grid map with A* search algorithm while the local planner encapsulates a DWA implementation.
3. Multi-layered Based Interaction and Navigation for an Intelligent wheelchair [paper].
In a semantic map, different places and objects are classified and categorised, such as common room, living room, kitchen, desk, bed, furniture, food etc. Each place and object has their own properties namely class, name, ID, function, pose, state. It also represents the topological relation of the components in the environment. Semantic spatial representation can enable a robot to interact with human through natural language and corresponding linguistics based label or text interface contains this information. A robot with semantic representation of heterogeneous places and objects can augment human-robot communication and interaction. Additionally, the semantic information can improve the efficiency of path planning and navigation as well as extend the capability of task planning for a robot. This paper presents an interactive navigation system for an intelligent wheelchair with a multi-layered map prototype mentioned above. The geometric map provides the spatial information for localisation. The topological map and geometric map are used for path planning. The topological map consist of segments of environment graphs. The semantic map representing the environment with an ontology model is used for human-robot interaction and task planning. Dialogue is used to provide a natural and friendly interface for human-wheelchair communication.
video coming soon
4. RobCup simulation
4. RobCup simulation
5. Control robot by hand motion with Leap motion
video coming soon
6. Robot Control by body motion with Kinect
7 Multi-agent based simulation of crowed social environment in DiVE.
Autonomous Modular Reconfigurable Robots
An autonomous modular reconfigurable robot is a robotic system made up of multiple self-contained modules that can connect, disconnect, and rearrange themselves without human intervention to adapt their overall shape and functionality to different tasks or environments. In other words, rather than having a fixed design, these robots can “morph” their structure—for example, shifting from a snake-like form to a spider-like configuration—to better navigate confined spaces, overcome obstacles, or even self-repair if a module fails.
Each module typically houses its own sensors, actuators, and processing capabilities. They often use standardized docking mechanisms (such as magnetic or mechanical latches) to attach securely to each other, enabling coordinated control across the entire system. This inherent flexibility gives modular robots their promise of enhanced versatility, robustness, and cost-effectiveness in applications ranging from space exploration and search & rescue to adaptive furniture and automated manufacturing.
For instance, systems like PolyBot and Molecubes have demonstrated how a collection of identical modules can reconfigure to traverse different terrains or perform complex tasks by simply altering the way they’re assembled. Researchers continue to refine control algorithms and mechanical designs to overcome challenges such as planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces and ensuring reliable inter-module connections.
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