{"691074":{"#nid":"691074","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Ziyi Zhou","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Structure-Aware Task and Motion Planning for Contact-Rich Locomotion and Manipulation\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Ye Zhao, ME, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Seth Hutchinson, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Patricio Vela, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Samuel Coogan, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Patrick Wensing, Notre Dame\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERobots operating in the real world \u2014 quadrupeds on unstructured terrain, manipulators pressing on compliant substrates, multi-robot teams transporting shared payloads \u2014 must simultaneously plan complex motions and reason about contact. This dissertation develops a unified planning-and-control framework organized around one technical motif: every problem admits a structure-aware decomposition solved through alternating coordination between subproblems, jointly targeting efficiency, agility, safety, and scalability. Inside the motion layer, three decompositions are developed: a temporal decomposition for contact-rich trajectory optimization of legged locomotion and force-modulated manipulation; a spatial decomposition yielding a distributed MPC for multi-robot collaborative loco-manipulation with team-size-independent replanning; and a system-level decomposition with inertia-aware centroidal \/ whole-body coupling that generates and tracks momentum-rich agile motions. Across the task\u2013motion interface, a cross-layer decomposition unifies LTL-based reactive synthesis with mixed-integer convex programming for terrain-adaptive locomotion. Together, the four patterns advance contact-rich robot autonomy and provide a methodological lens for future work bridging model-based optimization and learning-based control.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Structure-Aware Task and Motion Planning for Contact-Rich Locomotion and Manipulation "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-07-09 18:05:00","changed_gmt":"2026-07-09 18:05:40","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-07-16T10:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-07-16T12:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-07-16T12:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-07-16 14:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-07-16 16:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-07-16 16:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Online","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/gatech.zoom.us\/j\/8827383119?pwd=V29OaVdnNG9QZHVSZ3c5Q3o4UktCUT09","title":"Zoom link"}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"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":""}}}