Visiting Researcher, ICS, Technical University of Munich, Germany, 2019.
Visiting Professor, COSMER Laboratory, University of Toulon, France, 2019.
Research Assistant Professor, T Stone Robotics Institute, CUHK, 2015–2017.
PhD Student, Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, CUHK, 2009–2014.
Research Supervision
Current interests: perceptual robotics, adaptive systems, and control theory.
I welcome applications from prospective PhD students from mechanical/automation engineering, computer science, or related disciplines. Candidates must send a CV along with details of their previous experience.
Outstanding international candidates are urged to apply to the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme. See details here.
Under this programme, students receive a monthly stipend of $25k HKD (around $3.1k USD) with all tuition fees waived.
On-going PhD students at PolyU:
Luiza Labazanova, 2019–2022
Jeffery Zhou, 2019–2022
Victor Wu, 2019–2022
Zoe Ma, 2018–2021
Muhammad Muddassir, 2018–2021
Omar Zahra, 2018–2021
Maria Victorova, 2017–2020
On-going MPhil students at PolyU:
Luyin Hu, 2019–2021
On-going MSc students at PolyU:
Kyle Hou, 2020–2021
Zeyu Wu, 2020–2021
Research Grants as PI
Enhancing Human-Robot Interactions Through Thermal Point Clouds. Sponsor: Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute (JITRI). Funding: 700,000 RMB (99,890 USD). Period: 2020–2021
Fourier-Based Shape Control of Soft Objects with Multiple Active Manipulation Points. Sponsor: Hong Kong Research and Grants Council (GRF). Funding: 640,200 HKD (81,907 USD). Period: 2018–2020
Visuo-Tactile Learning of Mechanical Properties for Robotic Grasping of Inhomogeneous Objects. Travel Grant: Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Funding: 43,200 HKD (5,512 USD). Period: 2019
Human-to-Robot Skill Transfer for Soft Manipulation in Unstructured Human Environments. Travel Grant: Research Grants Council (RGC) and the PROCORE-France. Funding: 86,400 HKD (11,009 USD). Period: 2019–2020
Adaptive Visuo-Motor Models for Robotic Welding in Uncertain Construction Environments. Sponsor: CNERC (Hong Kong Branch) at PolyU. Funding: 314,600 HKD (40,085 USD). Period: 2019–2020
Experimental Study on Robotic Skin Rejuvenation with Thermal Monitoring. Sonsor: RODS Tech Ltd. Funding: 196,000 HKD (24,986 USD). Period: 2019–2020
Perceptual and Cognitive Methods for Intelligent Robot Behaviour. Sponsor: Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Funding: 200,000 HKD (25,523 USD). Period: 2019–2020
Development of Robotic Technologies for Natural Human-Robot Interactions. Sponsor: Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Funding: 450,000 HKD (57,414 USD). Period: 2017–2020
A Sensor-Guided Robotic System for Automatic Manipulation of Laser Instruments in Skin Rejuvenation Procedure. Sponsor: RODS Tech Ltd. Funding: 386,515 HKD (49,451 USD). Period: 2018–2019
Editorship
Associate Editor. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Specialty Section on:Soft Robotics.
Associate Editor. IEEE ICRA 2019, 2020, and IEEE/RSJ IROS 2019.
Guest Editor. Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Issue on: Multimodal Sensor-Based Robot Control for Interaction, Soft Manipulation and Whole-Body Control.
Organiser. IROS 2018 Special Session: Methods and Algorithms for Automatic Manipulation of Deformable Objects.
Co-Organiser. IROS 2015 and 2016 Workshops: See, Touch, and Hear: 2nd Workshop on Multimodal Sensor-Based Robot Control for HRI and Soft Manipulation.
Selected Publications
D. Navarro-Alarcon O. Zahra, C. Trejo, E. Olguin-Diaz and V. Parra-Vega.
Computing Pressure-Deformation Maps for Braided Continuum Robots, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Specialty Section on: Soft Robotics.
pp. 1–8, 2019 .
D. Navarro-Alarcon and Y.-H. Liu.
Fourier-Based Shape Servoing: A New Feedback Method to Actively Deform Soft Objects into Desired 2-D Image Contours
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), vol. 34, no. 1, 272–1279, 2018.
D. Navarro-Alarcon, S. Saini, T. Zhang, H. Chung, K. W. Ng, M. K. Chow, Y.-H. Liu
Developing a Compact Robotic Needle Driver for MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy in Tight Environments.
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), vol. 2, no. 3, 1648–1655, 2017.
D. Navarro-Alarcon, H.M. Yip, Z. Wang, Y.-H. Liu, F. Zhong, T. Zhang and P. Li.
Automatic 3D Manipulation of Soft Objects by Robotic Arms with Adaptive Deformation Model.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), vol. 32, no. 2, 429–441, 2016.
D. Navarro-Alarcon, Y.-H. Liu, J.G. Romero, and P. Li.
On the Visual Deformation Servoing of Compliant Objects: Uncalibrated Control Methods and Experiments.
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR), vol. 33, no. 11, pp. 1462–1480, 2014.
D. Navarro-Alarcon, Y.-H. Liu, J.G. Romero, and P. Li.
Model-free Visually Servoed Deformation Control of Elastic Objects by Robot Manipulators.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO), vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 1457–1468, 2013.
