Current Ph.D. student in Industrial Engineering, in progress, Purdue University.
M.Phil. in Computer and Information Engineering, 2022, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
B.Eng. in Electronic Information Engineering, 2020, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.
News
[May 2025] I presented our work "a magnetic-actuated vision-based whisker array for contact perception and grasping" at ICRA 2025 in Atlanta, United States.
Research
I'm interested in robotic perception and cognition, especially robot tactile sensing.
@article{hu2026vibrissae,
title={Vibrissae-inspired vision-based magnetic-actuated whisker},
author={Hu, Zhixian and Cheng, Yi and Wachs, Juan and She, Yu},
journal={Nature Communications},
volume={17},
pages={939},
year={2026},
publisher={Nature Publishing Group},
doi={10.1038/s41467-025-67672-x}
}
This study presents a vision-based magnetic-actuated whisker array sensor that integrates both tactile sensing and the manipulation of delicate objects.
@inproceedings{hu2025magnetic,
title={A magnetic-actuated vision-based whisker array for contact perception and grasping},
author={Hu, Zhixian and Wachs, Juan and She, Yu},
booktitle={2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
pages={1--7},
year={2025},
organization={IEEE}
}
This study presents a vision-based magnetic-actuated whisker array sensor that integrates both tactile sensing and the manipulation of delicate objects.
@article{lin2024self,
title={Self-Adaptive Perception of Object's Deformability with Multiple Deformation Attributes Utilizing Biomimetic Mechanoreceptors},
author={Lin, Waner and Wang, Ziya and Xu, Yingtian and Hu, Zhixian and Zhao, Wenyu and Zhu, Zhihao and Sun, Zhenglong and Wang, Guoxing and Peng, Zhengchun},
journal={Advanced Materials},
volume={36},
number={9},
pages={2305032},
year={2024},
publisher={Wiley Online Library}
}
This study proposes an innovative design of a tactile sensor that integrates the capabilities of two slow-adapting mechanoreceptors within a soft medium, allowing self-decoupled sensing of local pressure and strain at specific locations within the contact interface.
@article{hu2023machine,
title={Machine learning for tactile perception: advancements, challenges, and opportunities},
author={Hu, Zhixian and Lin, Lan and Lin, Waner and Xu, Yingtian and Xia, Xuan and Peng, Zhengchun and Sun, Zhenglong and Wang, Ziya},
journal={Advanced Intelligent Systems},
volume={5},
number={7},
pages={2200371},
year={2023},
publisher={Wiley Online Library}
}
This paper provides a comprehensive review of the advancements, challenges, and opportunities in the field of machine learning for tactile perception.
@article{zhu2023robust,
title={Robust and flexible sliding tactile sensor for surface pattern perception and recognition},
author={Zhu, Zhihao and Xu, Yingtian and Lin, Waner and Hu, Zhixian and Lin, Zhuofan and Sun, Zhenglong and Peng, Zhengchun and Wang, Ziya},
journal={Advanced Intelligent Systems},
volume={5},
number={10},
pages={2300225},
year={2023},
publisher={Wiley Online Library}
}
This paper presents a soft sliding tactile sensor that enables high-accuracy 3D surface recognition using low-density arrays and deep learning.
@inproceedings{hu2022augmented,
title={Augmented pointing gesture estimation for human-robot interaction},
author={Hu, Zhixian and Xu, Yingtian and Lin, Waner and Wang, Ziya and Sun, Zhenglong},
booktitle={2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
pages={6416--6422},
year={2022},
organization={IEEE}
}
This paper propose an augmented pointing gesture estimation method to enable richer and programmable instructions to be given to the robots.
@inproceedings{hu2019collaborative,
title={Collaborative object transportation by multiple robots with onboard object localization algorithm},
author={Hu, Zhixian and Zhao, Zhixiang and Zhang, Lianxin and Liu, Hengli and Ding, Ning and Sun, Zhenglong and Lam, Tin Lun and Qian, Huihuan},
booktitle={2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO)},
pages={2344--2350},
year={2019},
organization={IEEE}
}
This paper presents a multi-robot leader-follower system with onboard object localization for collaborative object transport and trajectory tracking.
Teaching
[Spring 2026] Teaching Assistant, IE574, Purdue University
[Fall 2025] Teaching Assistant, IE474, Purdue University
Experience
[Jun-Aug 2020] Product intern at Ubtech Robotics, Shenzhen, China.