Ruyi Zhou 周如意

Ruyi Zhou is a Postdoc at Harbin Institute of Technology. She obtained her Doctor's degree from Harbin Institute of Technology in Aeronautical and Astronautical Science and Technology in December 2024, advised by Prof. Liang Ding. She was a visiting PhD student at Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich, advised by Prof. Marco Hutter. Previously, she obtained her Master's degree from Harbin Institute of Technology, in Mechanical Engineering. Detailed info can be found in her CV.

News
Research Highlights

My research topic lies at the intersection of Robotics, terramechanics, and computer vision, specifically, focusing on autonomous, agile navigation, and scientific exploration for space robots. Her current research topic is integrating environmental physical property perception into robot’s locomotion and navigation to handle slippery and soft deformable terrains.

Physical Environment Representation and Perception

How should we represent physical environment in a compact, unified, and comprehensive manner?

How to efficiently perceive the physical properties for different robots under various environments?

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Mapping, Planning and Navigation Algorithms

How can we efficiently build a map for downstream applications?

How can we leverage the physical understanding to plan path or navigate robots wiser and safer?

Show/Hide Work on Algorithms

Publications ( show selected / show all by date / show all by topic / show all by platform )

Topics: Planetary Exploration / Physical Scene Understanding / High-Fidelity Simulaton / Planning / Terramechanics Locomotion

Whole-Body Constrained Learning for Legged Locomotion via Hierachical Optimization
Haoyu Wang, Ruyi Zhou*, Liang Ding*, Tie Liu, Zhelin Zhang, Peng Xu, Haibo Gao, Zongquan Deng

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, (2025).
Paper / Project page / Video

Identifying Terrain Physical Parameters from Vision-Towards Physical-Parameter-Aware Locomotion and Navigation
Jiaqi Chen, Jonas Frey*, Ruyi Zhou, Takahiro Miki, Georg Martius, Marco Hutter

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 9(11), 9279-9286 (2024).
Paper / Project page / Code (Coming Soon) / Video

Lunar Rock Investigation and Tri-Aspect Characterization of Lunar Farside Regolith by a Digital Twin
Liang Ding*†, Ruyi Zhou†, Tianyi Yu†, Huaiguang Yang, Ximing He, Haibo Gao*, Juntao Wang, Ye Yuan, Jia Wang, Zhengyin Wang, Huanan Qi, Jian Li*, Wenhao Feng, Xin Li, Chuankai Liu, Shaojin Han, Xiaojia Zeng, Yu-Yan Sare Zhao, Guangjun Liu, Wenhui Wan, Yuedong Zhang, Saijin Wang, Lichun Li, Zongquan Deng, Jianzhong Liu*, Guolin Hu, Rui Zhao, Kuan Zhang

Nature Communications, 15(1), 2098 (2024).
Paper / Data

Scientific Exploration of Challenging Planetary Analog Environments with a Team of Legged Robots
Philip Arm*†, Gabriel Waibel†, Jan Preisig, Turcan Tuna, Ruyi Zhou, Valentin Bickel, Gabriela Ligeza, Takahiro Miki, Florian Kehl, Hendrik Kolvenbach, Marco Hutter

Science Robotics, 8(80), eade9548 (2023).
Paper / Data / Video

Learning-based End-to-end Navigation for Planetary Rovers Considering Non-geometric Hazards
Wenhao Feng, Liang Ding*, Ruyi Zhou, Chongfu Xu, Huaiguang Yang, Haibo Gao, Guangjun Liu, Zongquan Deng

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 8(7), 4084-4091 (2023).
Paper / Project page / Video

Learning Physical Characteristics Like Animals for Legged Robots
Peng Xu, Liang Ding*, Zhengyang Li, Huaiguang Yang, Zhikai Wang, Haibo Gao, Ruyi Zhou, Yang Su, Zongquan Deng, Yanlong Huang

National Science Review, 10(5), nwad045 (2023).
Paper / Data

MarsSim: A High-Fidelity Physical and Visual Simulation for Mars Rovers
Ruyi Zhou, Wenhao Feng, Liang Ding*, Huaiguang Yang, Haibo Gao, Guangjun Liu, Zongquand Deng

IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 59(2), 1879-1892 (2022).
Paper / Code (Coming Soon)

Pressing and Rubbing: Physics-informed features facilitate haptic terrain classification for legged robots
Liang Ding*, Peng Xu, Zhengyang Li, Ruyi Zhou, Haibo Gao, Zongquan Deng, Guangjun Liu

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(3), 5990-5997 (2022).
Paper

Surface Characteristics of Zhurong Mars Rover Traverse at Utopia Planitia
Liang Ding*†, Ruyi Zhou†, Tianyi Yu†, Haibo Gao*, Huaiguang Yang*, Jian Li, Ye Yuan, Chuankai Liu, Jia Wang, Yuyan-Sara Zhao, Zhengyin Wang, Xiyi Wang, Haibo Gao, Zongquan Deng, Lan Huang, Nan Li, Xiaofeng Cui, Ximing He, Yang Jia, Baofeng Yuan, Guangjun Liu, Hui Zhang, Rui Zhao, Zuoyu Zhang, Ziqing Cheng, Fan Wu, Qian Xu, Hao Lu, Lutz Richter, Zhen Liu, Fuliang Niu, Huanan Qi, Shu Li, Wenhao Feng, Chaojie Yang, Baichao Chen, Zhaolong Dang, Mingming Zhang, Lichun Li, Xiaoxue Wang, Zhao Huang, Jitao Zhang, Hongjun Xing, Guanyu Wang, Lizhou Niu, Peng Xu, Wenhui Wan, Kaichang Di

Nature Geoscience, 15, 171-176 (2022).
Paper / Data

Suppression in Any Configuration: A Versatile Coupling Improved Multi-Objective Manipulation Framework for Modular Active Vibration Isolation System
Zhaopei Gong, Liang Ding, Hongjun Xing, Haibo Gao, Peng Xu, Ruyi Zhou*, Yifan Lu, Honghao Yue

Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 166, 108478 (2022).
Paper

A 2-Year Locomotion Exploration and Scientific Investigation of the Lunar Farside by the Yutu-2 Rover
Liang Ding*†, Ruyi Zhou†, Ye Yuan†, Huaiguang Yang, Jian Li, Tianyi Yu*, Chuankai Liu, Jia Wang, Shu Li, Haibo Gao*, Nan Li, Zengyin Wang, Zhaopei Gong, Guangjun Liu, Jianfeng Xie, Saijin Wang, Zhifei Rong, Demin Deng, Xiaoxue Wang, Shaojin Han, Wenhui Wan, Lutz Richter, Lan Huang, Sheng Gou, Zhen Liu, Haitao Yu, Yang Jia, Baichao Chen, Zhaolong Dang, Kuan Zhang, Lichun Li, Ximing He, Shiying Liu, Kaichang Di

Science Robotics, 62(7), eabj6660 (2022).
Paper / Data

Contact Sequence Planning for Hexapod Robots in Sparse Foothold Environment Based on Monte-Carlo Tree
Peng Xu, Liang Ding*, Zhikai Wang, Haibo Gao, Ruyi Zhou*, Zhaopei Gong, Guangjun Liu

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(2), 826-844 (2021).
Paper

Sensitivity Analysis and Dominant Parameter Estimation of Wheel-Terrain Interaction Model
Ruyi Zhou, Wenhao Feng, Zongquan Deng, Haibo Gao, Liang Ding*, Nan Li

Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, 42(1), 524076 (2021).
Paper

Environmental Characterization and Path Planning for Legged Robots Considering Foot-Terrain Interaction
Peng Xu, Liang Ding*, Haibo Gao, Ruyi Zhou*, Nan Li, Zongquan Deng

Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 56(23), 21-33 (2020).
Paper

Predicting Terrain Mechanical Properties in Sight for Planetary Rovers with Semantic Clues
Ruyi Zhou, Wenhao Feng, Huaiguang Yang, Haibo Gao, Nan Li, Zongquan Deng, Liang Ding*

ArXiv 2020 Paper

Fault Tolerant Free Gait and Footstep Planning for Hexapod Robot Based on Monte-Carlo Tree
Liang Ding*, Peng Xu, Haibo Gao, Zhikai Wang, Ruyi Zhou, Zhaopei Gong, Guangjun Liu

ArXiv 2020 Paper

Mapping for Planetary Rovers from Terramechanics Perspective
Ruyi Zhou, Liang Ding*, Haibo Gao, Wenhao Feng, Zongquan Deng, Nan Li

2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligence Robots and Systems (IROS) (Best Application Paper Finalist)
Paper

Research on Modeling of Terrain Geometry and Mechanical Properties Based on Planetary Rovers' Visual Information
Ruyi Zhou

Master Thesis, Harbin Institute of Technology (2019).
Paper

Extraction of Speed-Independent Vibration Features for Terrain Classification in Lugged-Wheel Rovers
Fengtian Lv, Haibo Gao, Yumeng Bai, Nan Li, Liang Ding*, Ruyi Zhou, Zongquan Deng, Guangjun Liu

2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 1580-1585 (2018).
Paper