Yuki Shirai
Ph.D. Candidate in Robotics
Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Email: yukishirai4869-"AT"-g.ucla.edu
About
I am Yuki Shirai, a 5th year Ph.D. candidate at UCLA under the guidance of Prof. Dennis Hong.
Research Interests
Robust planning & control for contact-rich systems
Formulating robust motion planning & control algorithms that can consider the stochastic nature of a robot (e.g., stochastic contact force, sensor noise).
Formulating contact-rich trajectory optimization that considers hybrid dynamics of legged robots and manipulators via Mixed-Integer Convex Optimization, Complementarity System.
Combining model-based controllers with data-driven approaches for motion planning of a climbing robot with probabilistic guarantees.
Implementing my proposed planners on the hardware.
Keywords: Legged Robots, Manipulators, Trajectory Optimization, Stochastic Optimal Control, Whole-Body Control, Deep Learning.
What's new:
[2023 Jun]: Our paper got the 1st prize for the ICRA 2023 workshop, "Embracing contacts. Making robots physically interact with our world"!
[2023 Jan]: Two of our latest works got accepted for ICRA 2023! See you in London! Also our paper got accepted for ACC2023! See you in San Diego!
[2022 Dec]: I will do internship at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute during 2023 June - October!
[2022 Jul]: Two papers are accepted for the IROS 2022! Also one of our papers got SICE International Young Authors Award.
[2022 Jun]: I'll attend RSS workshop "The Science of Bumping Into Things: Towards Robots That Aren’t Afraid of Contact" and our work was chosen as one of the oral presentations!
[2022, Mar]: CV is updated and one of my works during intern at MERL was accepted to the 2022 ICRA! Also, I will do intern again at MERL during 2022 summer!
[2021, Apr]: I passed the oral qualifying exam and am advanced to PhD candidate!
[2021, Feb]: I will do internship at MERL during 2021 summer.
[2018, Sep]: I started my Ph.D. at UCLA.
[2018, Mar]: I got the B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Tohoku University!
Selected Publication
Tactile Tool Manipulation
Keywords: Dexterous Manipulation; Manipulation Planning; Optimization and Optimal Control
ICRA 2023. [Best Paper in the workshop, "Embracing contacts."! ]
Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan, and Dennis Hong
[arxiv][video][poster][presentation]
Robust Pivoting: Exploiting Frictional Stability Using Bilevel Optimization
Keywords: Manipulation Planning, Optimization and Optimal Control, Dexterous Manipulation
ICRA 2022. Under review for TRO.
Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan, Diego Romeres.
Simultaneous Contact-Rich Grasping and Locomotion via Distributed Optimization Enabling Free-Climbing for Multi-Limbed Robots
Keywords: Legged Robots, Optimization and Optimal Control, Grasping
IROS2022
Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Yusuke Tanaka, Hayato Kato, Varit Vichathorn, and Dennis Hong.
[arxiv][video][presentation][poster]
Covariance Steering for Uncertain Contact-Rich Systems
Keywords: Planning under Uncertainty; Optimization and Optimal Control; Manipulation Planning
ICRA 2023.
Yuki Shirai, Devesh K. Jha, and Arvind U. Raghunathan
[arxiv][presentation][poster]
SCALER: A Tough Versatile Quadruped Free-Climber Robot
Keywords: Climbing Robots, Legged Robots, Grippers and Other End-Effectors
IROS2022. Got SICE International Young Authors Award.
Yusuke Tanaka, Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Alexander Schperberg, Hayato Kato, Alexander Swerdlow, Naoya Kumagai, Dennis Hong
STOCS: Simultaneous Trajectory Optimization and Contact Selection for Contact-Rich Manipulation
Keywords: Manipulation Planning; Optimization and Optimal Control; Dexterous Manipulation
Mengchao Zhang, Yuki Shirai, Devesh K. Jha, Arvind U. Raghunathan, and Kris Hauser
[poster]
Chance-Constrained Optimization in Contact-Rich Systems for Robust Manipulation
Keywords: Manipulation Planning, Optimization and Optimal Control, Dexterous Manipulation
ACC 2023.
Yuki Shirai, Devesh Jha, Arvind Raghunathan, Diego Romeres.
[arxiv]
Keywords: Motion and Path Planning, Optimization and Optimal Control
ICRA 2021.
Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Ankur Mehta, and Dennis Hong.
[abs][pdf][video][presentation]
Keywords: Legged Robots, Motion and Path Planning, Optimization and Optimal Control
RA-L with the IROS 2020 option.
Yuki Shirai, Xuan Lin, Yusuke Tanaka, Ankur Mehta, and Dennis Hong.
[abs][pdf][video][presentation]
Keywords: Space Robotics and Automation, Climbing Robots, Grippers and Other End-Effectors.
RA-L with the ICRA 2018 option
Kenji Nagaoka, Hayato Minote, Kyohei Maruya, Yuki Shirai, Kazuya Yoshida, Takeshi Hakamada, Hirotaka Sawada, and Takashi Kubota.
Keywords: Legged Robots, Space Robotics and Automation
The 14th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space
Yuki Shirai, Hayato Minote, Kenji Nagaoka, and Kazuya Yoshida.
[pdf]
Awards
ICRA 2023 workshop, "Embracing contacts. Making robots physically interact with our world", 1st prize. (250£): Jun. 2023.
Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation Fellowship (The full amount of tuition plus a stipend for living expenses): Sep. 2020 - present
Funai Overseas Scholarship (The full amount of tuition plus a stipend of $2,500 a month for living expenses): Sep. 2018 - Aug. 2020
Hatakeyama Award: No.1 bachelor student in the School of Engineering at Tohoku University: Mar. 2018
Professional Services
Peer-reviewer experience
TRO (2024)
IJRR (2024).
ICRA (2021-2024).
IROS (2020-2023).
CDC (2023)
IEEE Access (2021).
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (2021-2022).