{"685140":{"#nid":"685140","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Proposal by Zhaoyuan Gu","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E: Bridging Models and Learning towards Humanoid Robustness and Versatility\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDate\u003C\/strong\u003E: Friday, September 26th, 2025\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETime\u003C\/strong\u003E: 12:00\u0026nbsp;- 2:00 pm ET\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELocation\u003C\/strong\u003E: Erskine Love Building\u0026nbsp;184, or\u0026nbsp; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96422045558\u0022 title=\u0022https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/96422045558\u0022\u003EZoom link\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZhaoyuan Gu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERobotics Ph.D. Student\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWoodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Ye Zhao\u0026nbsp;(advisor) \u2013 Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Maegan Tucker \u2013 School of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u0026nbsp;and Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Sehoon Ha \u2013 School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Patrick Wensing\u0026nbsp; \u2013 Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Guanya Shi \u2013 Robotics Institute and the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHumanoid robotics is in a transformative era. The ever-more reliable and accessible hardware offers a unique opportunity to address the pressing demand for general-purpose humanoid agents. Yet, today\u2019s humanoids still face persistent challenges of robustness against unexpected perturbation, and most can perform only a single task. Our key insight is that models provide strong, robust, and safe guarantees of humanoid locomotion. To extend beyond model-based methods, we propose to improve a pre-trained policy through reinforcement learning fine-tuning. This proposal advances the foundations of robust locomotion and extends toward versatile loco-manipulation through three integrated contributions: (1) Real-time Model Prediction Control (MPC) with formal robustness guarantees for perturbation-resilient locomotion; (2) Reinforcement Learning (RL) motion imitation that creates versatile and precise loco-manipulation from expert demonstration; and (3) A proposed fine-tuning approach that exceeds the limits of the expert demonstrations, gaining versatility and success rates critical for real-world deployment. Together, these efforts bring the rigor of formal models with the flexibility of learning, advancing toward the overarching goal of robust and versatile humanoid robots.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBridging Models and Learning towards Humanoid Robustness and Versatility\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Bridging Models and Learning towards Humanoid Robustness and Versatility"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2025-09-22 13:43:07","changed_gmt":"2025-09-22 13:44:09","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2025-09-26T12:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2025-09-26T14:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2025-09-26T14:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2025-09-26 16:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2025-09-26 18:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2025-09-26 18:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Erskine Love Building 184, or  Zoom link","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}