Haidong (Andrew) Huang

Physical AI / Robotics

Hi, I'm Haidong 👋! You can call me Andrew. I love robots and am dedicated to integrating them safely and reliably into our lives.

I am a second-year undergraduate at the University of Nottingham, pursuing a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree. I am currently a visiting student in the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), advised by Prof. Chenguang (Charlie) Yang (Fellow of IEEE/IET; Member of EASA and NAAI).

Haidong (Andrew) Huang

I also spent a wonderful summer at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)'s Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute, under the supervision of Prof. Jun Ma. I am also an Undergraduate Researcher in the Robot Learning and Control Lab at Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, advised by Prof. Xiaocong Li, and work closely with Dr. Haiyue Zhu from A*STAR.

Research Interests

My research interests lie at the intersection of robotic manipulation, generative models, and control theory, with a primary focus on dexterous manipulation and generative control policies. I am interested in how an understanding of geometric structure, contact interactions, and action consequences can inform policy learning and closed-loop control, enabling robots to adapt to changing environments, flexibly compose manipulation skills, and reliably accomplish long-horizon tasks. My long-term goal is to enable robust, safe, and sustained robot deployment at scale in real-world environments and to build intelligent systems that perceive, reason about, and interact with the physical world. More broadly, I am drawn to research that combines scientific impact with the potential to inspire new ideas.

News

Publications & Manuscripts

* Equal contribution† Corresponding author‡ Project Leader

Overview figure for ActAtlas: Learning Adaptive Execution Atlases for Long-Horizon Robotic Manipulation

ActAtlas: Learning Adaptive Execution Atlases for Long-Horizon Robotic Manipulation

Haidong Huang, Yutong Shen, Heng Zhang, Xingwei Chen, Haiyue Zhu, Jun Ma, Ding Zhao†, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to The Fifteenth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2027

ActAtlas learns adaptive execution anchors and their directed transitions from demonstrations to condition a shared diffusion policy, distinguishing similar-looking states at different task stages and improving long-horizon manipulation.

Overview figure for T-FRAME: Tactile Force-aware Representation for Action-conditioned Manipulability Evolution

T-FRAME: Tactile Force-aware Representation for Action-conditioned Manipulability Evolution

Xingwei Chen*, Haidong Huang*, Xiyuan Li, Xuqi Su, Shengjie Qiu, Tang Chong, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to The Fifteenth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2027

T-FRAME combines physics-supervised prediction of action-conditioned contact consequences with uncertainty-aware, video-guided preference learning to train a recurrent tactile policy for reliable, efficient dexterous fastening through repeated contact renewal without online search.

Overview figure for Identifiability and Active Confirmation of Contact Mobility Transitions

Identifiability and Active Confirmation of Contact Mobility Transitions

Xixin Zhao, Haidong Huang, Yaohua Zhou, Jiayu Song, Yuji Yamakawa†

Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027

RSS 2026 Workshop on Geometry of Motion Oral Presentation

We characterize why passive execution cannot always identify contact-induced mobility loss and derive active-query requirements under an ideal projector model to guide targeted confirmation of newly constrained motions.

Overview figure for Consequence-Quotient Flow Matching for Robot Manipulation

Consequence-Quotient Flow Matching for Robot Manipulation

Yutong Shen*, Haidong Huang*, Heng Zhang, Haoxuan Xu, Yiqing Yin, Xuanhao Zheng, Xuhan Miao, Arash Ajoudani, Lei Zhang, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027

CQ-FM uses learned action-consequence geometry to guide both flow-matching training and safeguarded closed-loop correction, improving task completion without enlarging the vision–language–action backbone.

Overview figure for TA-SmolVLA: Tactile Tokens from Dense Force Fields for Contact-Rich Insertion

TA-SmolVLA: Tactile Tokens from Dense Force Fields for Contact-Rich Insertion

Xuqi Su, Yichen Wang, Mihael Simonic, Zhenxin Yu, Chan Zhang, Xingwei Chen, Haidong Huang, Yaohua Zhou, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027

TA-SmolVLA integrates bilateral dense force-field tactile tokens into vision–language–action learning and connects generated actions to impedance control for more reliable, compliant plug insertion under wrist-camera occlusion.

Overview figure for A Ranking-Based Performance Normalization Method for Multi-Objective Robot Trajectory Optimization

A Ranking-Based Performance Normalization Method for Multi-Objective Robot Trajectory Optimization

Yaohua Zhou, Haidong Huang, Xixin Zhao, Gang Xu, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027

NRBPEM combines rank-based normalization with sequential weighted-sum optimization to reduce sensitivity to extreme values and objective dominance, achieving faster convergence while maintaining comparable performance in multi-objective robot trajectory optimization.

Overview figure for GeoPreserve: Preserving Action-Relevant Geometry in 3D Diffusion Policies for Long-Horizon Manipulation

GeoPreserve: Preserving Action-Relevant Geometry in 3D Diffusion Policies for Long-Horizon Manipulation

Haidong Huang*, Yutong Shen*, Xingwei Chen, Heng Zhang, Chenguang Yang, Haiyue Zhu, Jun Ma†, Xiaocong Li†

Submitted to AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2027

GeoPreserve uses Rewriting–Routing–Recovery to keep action-relevant 3D geometry available from observation encoding through denoising, improving long-horizon manipulation and behavioral diversity while retaining a lightweight diffusion policy.

Overview figure for MetaWorld-X: Semantic-Prior Expert Orchestration with Training-Time Latent Model-Based Improvement

MetaWorld-X: Semantic-Prior Expert Orchestration with Training-Time Latent Model-Based Improvement

Yutong Shen*, Haidong Huang*, Heng Zhang, Penghui Liu, Jiashuo Luo, Zhang Shunqi, Chen Jiang, Chenguang Yang†, Arash Ajoudani, Jianwei Zhang, Lei Zhang

Submitted to AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2027

MetaWorld-X combines a shared latent world model, human-motion-informed experts, and VLM-guided semantic composition to reduce skill interference and support coordinated multi-stage humanoid loco-manipulation.

Overview figure for ALAS: Adaptive Long-Horizon Action Synthesis via Disentangled Environment and Self-State Representations

ALAS: Adaptive Long-Horizon Action Synthesis via Disentangled Environment and Self-State Representations

Yutong Shen*, Haidong Huang*, Lei Zhang, Penghui Liu, Yinqi Liu†

Submitted to IEEE Humanoid 2026

ALAS disentangles environmental context from self-state dynamics and adaptively fuses these representations to improve cross-scene transfer, skill reuse, and long-horizon human–scene interaction.

Overview figure for Preserving Operator Intent Under Actuation Constraints: Teleoperation of Manipulators with Coupled Transmissions

Preserving Operator Intent Under Actuation Constraints: Teleoperation of Manipulators with Coupled Transmissions (Project Leader)

Xuhan Miao, Zijin Han, Yutong Shen, Haidong Huang‡, Shanliushui Gao, Lei Zhang, Xiaocong Li, Chenguang Yang†

Accepted by 5th Sensorimotor-Augmented Teleoperation Workshop @ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026 Oral Presentation

Our teleoperation framework combines gravity-aware actuator-space projection with continuous feasible-reference updates to preserve operator intent and reduce coordination distortion and recovery transients in manipulators with coupled transmissions.

Overview figure for CoRDE: Concept-Prior Routed Diffusion Experts for Structural Generalization in Robot Manipulation

CoRDE: Concept-Prior Routed Diffusion Experts for Structural Generalization in Robot Manipulation

Haidong Huang, Xixin Zhao, Yaohua Zhou, Jiayu Song, Jiayi Zhang, Jun Ma, Haiyue Zhu, Xiaocong Li†

Accepted by IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026 Oral Presentation

Received a $1,500 travel grant from IEEE RAS.

CoRDE fuses concept priors with behavioral evidence to guide parameter-efficient LoRA diffusion experts, reducing routing collapse while preserving diverse behaviors in multi-task manipulation.

Overview figure for Joint-Angle Invariance of Jacobian-Based Performance Indices for Serial Robotic Manipulators

Joint-Angle Invariance of Jacobian-Based Performance Indices for Serial Robotic Manipulators

Yaohua Zhou, Mingdao Lin, Jiayu Song, Xixin Zhao, Haidong Huang, Jiahu Qin, Xiaocong Li†

Accepted by IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026 Oral Presentation

We identify when Jacobian-based performance indices are invariant to the first and last joint angles, enabling lower-dimensional performance mapping and task-layout optimization with reduced computational and storage costs.

Overview figure for Opinion: Towards Unified Expressive Policy Optimization for Robust Robot Learning

Opinion: Towards Unified Expressive Policy Optimization for Robust Robot Learning

Haidong Huang, Haiyue Zhu, Jiayu Song, Xixin Zhao, Yaohua Zhou, Jiayi Zhang, Yuze Zhai, Xiaocong Li†

Accepted by EWM Workshop @ Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2025 Spotlight

UEPO combines multi-seed diffusion sampling, dynamic divergence regularization, and trajectory augmentation to broaden behavioral coverage and improve dynamics-model generalization for offline-to-online robot learning using a single generative policy.

View complete publication list →

Honors & Awards

Education

University of Nottingham (China Campus)

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)

Sep. 2024 - Jun. 2028 (Expected)

Research Experience

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)

Visiting Student · Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences

Advised by Prof. Chenguang (Charlie) Yang

Research: Robot manipulation; learning from demonstrations

May 2026 - Present

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

Visiting Research Student · Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute

Robot Motion Planning and Control Lab

Advised by Prof. Jun Ma

Research: Dexterous manipulation; robot manipulation

Jun. 2026 - Oct. 2026

Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo (EIT)

Undergraduate Researcher · Robot Learning and Control Lab

Advised by Prof. Xiaocong Li

Research: Robot manipulation; embodied AI; control

Apr. 2025 - Present

Academic Services

Miscellaneous

I have a passion for robots; the first movie I ever watched was Real Steel, and my all-time favorite is Big Hero 6. I have loved robots since I was young and dreamed of building one of my own—a dream that is now gradually becoming a reality. ☀️

During high school, I was deeply immersed in Physics and Chemistry Olympiad competitions, with a particular passion for mechanics. These experiences ignited my enthusiasm for research into enabling robots to engage in contact-rich interactions with the world around them. I love physics; it allows us to gain a profound, fundamental understanding of the world while simultaneously helping us better understand ourselves.

Beyond my research, I enjoy playing basketball, soccer, and table tennis. I am an NBA fan, and my favorite basketball players are Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant 🏀. I am also a huge fan of Lionel Messi ⚽ and Fan Zhendong 🏓.

I love rap music and have a particular fondness for gospel music. My favorite artists are Kanye West and ASEN. Music has extraordinary power.

“What I cannot create, I do not understand.”

— Richard P. Feynman