Runxuan (Jerry) Wang

I'm a first-year robotics master student at University of Pennsylvania, advised by Prof. Antonio Loquercio. Prior to UPenn, I received my B.S. in Computer Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At UIUC, I was an undergraduate research assistant at Robotic Perception, Interaction, and Learning Lab with Prof. Yunzhu Li and Human Centered Autonomy Lab advised by Prof. Katie Driggs-Campbell.

My research focuses on robot learning, with the ultimate goal of bridging the gap between simulation and real-world robotics.

Email / CV / Linkedin / Github

Research

Sim-to-Real Adaptation with Graph-Based Neural Dynamics for Granular Object Manipulation
Kaiwen Hong, Haonan Chen*, Runxuan Wang*, Kaylan Wang*, Mingtong Zhang, Shuijing Liu,
Yunzhu Li, Katherine Driggs-Campbell
arXiv, 2024

A GNN-based dynamics model combined with MCTS lets robots efficiently scoop granular objects from containers, bridging the sim-to-real gap by adapting simulation-trained models with minimal real-world data.

DRAGON: A Dialogue-Based Robot for Assistive Navigation with Visual Language Grounding
Shuijing Liu, Aamir Hasan, Kaiwen Hong, Runxuan Wang, Peixin Chang, Zachery Mizrachi, Justin Lin, D. Livingston McPherson, Wendy A. Rogers, Katherine Driggs-Campbell
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), 2024
project page / video / code / paper

A dialogue-based robot integrates CLIP-powered visual-language grounding with autonomous navigation to assist visually impaired users, guiding them to desired landmarks and providing real-time environmental descriptions through natural, unconstrained speech interactions.

Projects & Experiences

Autonomous "Sentry" Robot for RoboMaster Competition

In this project, I developed the complete software stack for an custom omnidirectional robot using ROS and FreeRTOS, enabling smooth navigation across various environments through FAST-LIO SLAM and TEB planner with the aid of a MID360 3D LiDAR.

Project page / Embedded Stack / Navigation Stack

Navigation through waypoints

Navigation in "defence" mode

Dynamically avoiding obstacles

Wheeled-Legged Balancing Robot - Senior Design "Best Overall Project"

In this project, I led the development of a wheeled-legged balancing robot, designing a custom STM32F103 microcontroller board and embedded software, with LQR and VMC-based control for stable locomotion. Our project received the "Grainger Best Overall Project" award, the top out of 40 teams.

Project page / Video / Slides / Final Paper

Robot & PCB design

Robot in action

Jump!

Embedded System Team Lead

During my undergraduate, I led the embedded systems team for Illini RoboMaster, participating in six competitions across the US and China. Our team achieved 2nd place (top 10%) in both the 2022 and 2023 RoboMaster University League North America rounds. I had experiences developing the embedded software and perception modules for 5+ distinct robots.

Project page

RoboMaster University Championship

RoboMaster University League NA

Side Quests

FPV Drone Racing/Cinematography

I've been a hobbyist FPV drone pilot and cinematographer since 2015. I also enjoy filming and editing travel vlogs. Check out my works below!

My drone (that ended up in a lake)

Northwestern China Vlog

FPV Film of UIUC

Source code borrowed from Jon Barron.