Research

Cyber-Physical Interaction and Analytics Laboratory

Notice:

I am looking for students with background in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering/Robotics and/or Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning . If you are interested, please send an email to yicai@hkust-gz.edu.cn with your resume. Thank you.

Research Interests:

High-performance Additive Manufacturing Processes and Products. My research in this direction includes in-situ monitoring and closed-loop control micro droplet-based additive manufacturing, hybrid additive manufacturing using multiple cooperative robots, and additive manufacturing of novel structures, sensors and actuators for robots and intelligent systems.
Innovative Robots for Manufacturing and Beyond. My research in this direction involves novel design and applications of novel rigid-flexible coupled robots with reconfigurable modules, AR-enhanced human-centric cognitive interface with AI for human-robot interaction, autonomous robotic system for water surface operations, and autonomous mobile service robots for additive manufacturing factories.
Cyber-physical Systems and Digital Twins for Advanced Manufacturing Systems. My research is to develop cyber-physical systems and digital twins for monitoring, analysis, simulation and optimization of advanced manufacturing systems (e.g., CNC and AM) using multimodal sensor data and artificial intelligence tools.
Technology-driven Pedagogies for STEM Education and Training. By developing novel learning and training modules that leverage AR, VR and IoT, my research is to identify effective pedagogies for better accomplishing the various learning objectives and enhancing the learning experience of STEM students.

Research Team:

Graduated PhD Advisees:

• Zhongyuan Liao, PhD, graduated in Summer 2024.

Topic: AI-assisted and AR-enhanced Reconfigurable Soft Robots: A Digital Twin Approach

• Tao Li, PhD, graduated in Summer 2025.

Topic: Design, Modeling, and Development of Autonomous Surface Manipulator Systems for Ocean Manufacturing

Current PhD Advisees:

• Zhiyuan Qi, PhD candidate, expected to graduate in Fall 2025.

Topic: Decision Analysis in Circular Economy Supply Chain

• Leihan Zhang, PhD candidate, expected to graduate in Summer 2026.

Topic: In-situ Monitoring and Quality Assurance for Micro droplet-based Additive Manufacturing

• Huangyi Qu, PhD student, expected to graduate in Summer 2026.

Topic: AR-enhanced Rehabilitation Robot using Multi-sensor Fusion and Shared Control

• Yuer Gao, PhD candidatee, expected to graduate in Summer 2026

Topic: Underwater Robotic Manufacturing System

• Tongqing Xu, PhD student, expected to graduate in Summer 2027

Topic: Service Robots for Additive Manufacturing Factory

• Jianhao Chen, PhD student, expected to graduate in Summer 2027.

Topic: Shared-sensing and Decision Making between Human and Robots

• Wanzhen Wei, PhD student, expected to graduate in Summer 2027.

Topic: Flexible Electronics for Advanced Applications

• Xiangyang Dong, PhD student, expected to graduate in Summer 2027.

Topic: In-situ Monitoring and Quality Assurance for Additive Manufacturing

Graduated MPhil Advisees:

• Jianhao Chen, MPhil, graduated in Summer 2024.

Topic: Robot-assisted Interactive Simulation Environment in VR for Industrial Training

• Wanzhen Wei, MPhil, graduated in Summer 2024.

Topic: Electronic Textile with Plug-and-play Modules

• John Lucky Tutor, MPhil, graduated in Summer 2024.

Topic: Monitoring Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients using Automated Fugl-Meyer Assessment: a Digital Twin Approach

First Runner-up, 2024 MPhil Thesis Writing Competition

• Mingjun Chen, MPhil, graduated in Summer 2025.

Topic: Automatic Spatial Calibration for Dual-nozzle Extrusion-based 3D Printers

• Haosong Xu, MPhil, graduated in Summer 2025.

Topic: Parallel 3D Printing with Dual Nozzles

Current MPhil Advisees:

• Xin Li, MPhil student, expected to graduate in Summer 2025.

Topic: Automatic Recommendation Algorithm for Multi-target Printing Orientation

• Jiansheng Li, MPhil student, expected to graduate in Summer 2025.

Topic: Motion and Interaction Strategies for Companion Robots

• Liang Zhu, MPhil student, expected to graduate in Summer 2026.

Topic: Collecting Grasping Datasets from Games for Robot Training

• Lun Tan, MPhil student, expected to graduate in Summer 2026.

Topic: Design of Gear Transmission System for Smart Electric Assist Bicycles

• Junzhe Wang, MPhil student, expected to graduate in Summer 2026.

Topic: Multimodal Target Recognition and Decision-Making using EEG and AR for Robots

Undergraduate Advisees:

• Jianning Zhu, Jiahong Liu, Dohun Lee, Haoyu He, Yantian Wang, Pengbo Jiang, Zhiyuan Li, Hongxu Chen, Spring 2025.

• Hongxu Chen, Xunzhi Cai, Chengtan Zhang, Fall 2024.

• Yaolou Niu, Yin Lam Chan, Hongliang He, Fall 2024.

• Binkai Liu, Xueyi Luo, Yuhan Chen, Spring 2024.

• Ziren Tang, Zihan Wang, Yuting Xiao, Fall 2023.

Professional Memberships:

• 广州市科学技术局科技专家库，2022至今

• 广东省机械工程学会制造业信息化分会理事，2023至今

• 中国图学学会数字孪生专业委员会委员，2024至今

• 中国复合材料学会复合材料增材制造专业委员会委员，2024至今

• Member of Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), 2017 - Present

• Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2016 - Present

• Member of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), 2016 – Present

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