Wenhao Luo

Department of Computer Science
College of Computing and Informatics
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223, USA
Office: Woodward 205D
Email: Wenhao.Luo@uncc.edu
[Google Scholar]

Biography

I am actively looking for self-motivated students at all levels (BS/MS/PhD) with relevant backgrounds. If you are interested in working with me, feel free to reach out!

I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at UNC Charlotte. My research interests are at the intersection of robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Specifically, my research focuses on principled methods for robust and interactive autonomy that enable robots to safely and effectively collaborate with each other and with humans in the physical world.

Prior to joining UNC Charlotte, I completed my PhD in Robotics at Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University in July 2021, where I was advised by Katia Sycara. I also spent two summers in 2019 and 2020 as a research intern at Microsoft Research collaborating with Ashish Kapoor.

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in robotics, control theory and artificial intelligence. Within robotics, my subdisciplinary interests lie in planning, coordination and learning for autonomous and adaptive robotic systems, such as multi-robot systems and human-robot systems, with emphasis on safety, robustness, trustworthiness and adversaries in the systems.

Teaching

Spring 2024: ITCS-6151/8151 Intelligent Robotics

Fall 2023: ITCS-4150 Mobile Robotics

Spring 2023: ITCS-6152/8152 Robot Motion Planning

Fall 2022: ITCS-3153 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Spring 2022: ITCS-6151/8151 Intelligent Robotics

Fall 2021: ITSC-8699 Graduate Research Seminar

News

Journal Articles

  • Collective Conditioned Reflex: A Bio-Inspired Fast Emergency Reaction Mechanism for Designing Safe Multi-Robot Systems
    Zhenting Zhao, Bowei He, Wenhao Luo, and Rui Liu
    Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) with presentation at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022
    Paper

  • A suboptimal and analytical solution to mobile robot trajectory generation amidst moving obstacles
    Jun Peng*, Wenhao Luo*, Weirong Liu, Wentao Yu, and Jing Wang
    (* indicates equal contribution)
    Autonomous Robots (AURO), vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 2015
    Paper

Refereed Conference Publications

  • Integrating Online Learning and Connectivity Maintenance for Communication-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination
    Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Ian Gao, and Wenhao Luo
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024
    PDF Coming Soon

  • Courteous Driving using CBF-inspired and Ego-perceived Risk Maps
    Yanze Zhang, Yiwei Lyu, Sude Ela Demir, Xingyu Zhou, Yupeng Yang, Junmin Wang, and Wenhao Luo
    The 27th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2024
    PDF Coming Soon

  • Individualizable Risk Assessment Map for Planning Vehicle Behaviors Respecting Perceived Safety
    Ji Hwan Park, Yanze Zhang, Wenhao Luo, and Junmin Wang
    The 27th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2024
    PDF Coming Soon

  • A Transitional Intelligent Driver Model Enabling Vehicle Longitudinal Motion Prediction in Lane-Change Maneuvers
    Sude Ela Demir, Xingyu Zhou, Yanze Zhang, Wenhao Luo, and Junmin Wang
    Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC), 2024
    PDF Coming Soon

  • Decentralized Multi-Robot Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance under Uncertainty
    Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Sha Yi, and Wenhao Luo
    Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2024
    Paper

  • Safety-Critical Control with Uncertainty Quantification using Adaptive Conformal Prediction
    Hao Zhou, Yanze Zhang, and Wenhao Luo
    American Control Conference (ACC), 2024
    Paper

  • Risk-based Socially-Compliant Behavior Planning for Autonomous Driving
    Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
    American Control Conference (ACC), 2024
    PDF Coming Soon

  • Risk-aware Safe Control for Decentralized Multi-agent Systems via Dynamic Responsibility Allocation
    Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023
    Best TAS Paper Award at ICRA 2023 Workshop on MACTAS
    Paper

  • Occlusion-free Image-Based Visual Servoing using Probabilistic Control Barrier Certificates
    Yanze Zhang, Yupeng Yang, and Wenhao Luo
    International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress (IFAC), 2023
    Paper

  • Minimally Constrained Multi-Robot Coordination with Line-of-sight Connectivity Maintenance
    Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, and Wenhao Luo
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023
    Paper

  • Decentralized Safe Navigation for Multi-agent Systems via Risk-aware Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells
    Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, and Wenhao Luo
    International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023
    Best Student Paper Runner Up Award
    Paper

  • Minimally Constraining Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance for Collision-free Multi-Robot Networks under Uncertainty
    Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, and Wenhao Luo
    International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023 (Extended Abstract)
    Paper

  • Multi-Robot Adaptive Sampling for Supervised Spatiotemporal Forecasting
    Siva Kailas, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    Progress in Artificial Intelligence: 22nd EPIA Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2023
    Paper

  • CBF-Inspired Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells for Distributed Multi-Agent Collision Avoidance
    Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, and Wenhao Luo
    American Control Conference (ACC), 2023
    Paper

  • Semantically-Aware Pedestrian Intent Prediction with Barrier Functions and Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming
    Jaskaran Grover, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, Changliu Liu, John Dolan, and Katia Sycara
    The 4th IFAC Workshop on Cyber-Physical Human Systems (CPHS), 2022 (Best Student Paper Finalist)
    Paper

  • Noncooperative Herding With Control Barrier Functions: Theory and Experiments
    Jaskaran Grover*, Nishant Mohanty*, Changliu Liu, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    (* indicates equal contribution)
    The 61th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2022
    Paper

  • Sample-efficient Safe Learning for Online Nonlinear Control with Control Barrier Functions
    Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
    The 15th International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2022
    Paper

  • Responsibility-associated Multi-agent Collision Avoidance with Social Preferences
    Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
    The 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2022
    Paper

  • Adaptive Safe Merging Control for Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles using Parametric Control Barrier Functions
    Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
    IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022
    Paper

  • Provable Probabilistic Safety and Feasibility-Assured Control for Autonomous Vehicles using Exponential Control Barrier Functions
    Spencer Van Koevering, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
    IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022 (Oral presentation)   (Selection rate 10%)
    Paper

  • Meta Preference Learning for Fast User Adaptation in Human-Supervisory Multi-Robot Deployments
    Chao Huang, Wenhao Luo, and Rui Liu
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021
    Paper

  • Hiding Leader's Identity in Leader-Follower Navigation through Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
    Ankur Deka, Wenhao Luo, Huao Li, Michael Lewis, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021
    Paper

  • Probabilistic Safety Assured Adaptive Merging Control for Autonomous Vehicles
    Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
    Best Paper Runner-Up Award at IJCAI 21 Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Driving  
    Paper

  • Online Connectivity-aware Dynamic Deployment for Multi-robot System
    Chendi Lin, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
    Paper

  • Distributed Topology Correction for Flexible Connectivity Maintenance in Multi-Robot Systems
    Sha Yi, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
    Paper

  • Multi-Robot Collision Avoidance under Uncertainty with Probabilistic Safety Barrier Certificates
    Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
    Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2020 (Spotlight)   (Selection rate 4.1%)
    Paper Video Code Poster

  • Minimally Disruptive Connectivity Enhancement for Resilient Multi-Robot Teams
    Wenhao Luo, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
    Paper

  • Adaptive Informative Sampling with Environment Partitioning for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems
    Yunfei Shi, Ning Wang, Jianmin Zheng, Yang Zhang, Sha Yi, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
    Paper

  • Behavior Mixing with Minimum Global and Subgroup Connectivity Maintenance for Large-Scale Multi-Robot Systems
    Wenhao Luo, Sha Yi, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020
    Paper

  • Minimum k-Connectivity Maintenance for Robust Multi-Robot Systems
    Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
    Paper

  • Heuristic-Based Multiple Mobile Depots Route Planning for Recharging Persistent Surveillance Robots
    Yifan Ding, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
    Paper

  • Voronoi-Based Coverage Control with Connectivity Maintenance for Robotic Sensor Networks
    Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), 2019
    Paper

  • Decentralized Multiple Mobile Depots Route Planning for Replenishing Persistent Surveillance Robots
    Yifan Ding, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), 2019
    Paper

  • Distributed Environmental Modeling and Adaptive Sampling for Multi-Robot Sensor Coverage
    Wenhao Luo, Changjoo Nam, George Kantor, and Katia Sycara
    International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
    Paper

  • Active Learning with Gaussian Processes for High Throughput Phenotyping
    Sumit Kumar, Wenhao Luo, George Kantor, and Katia Sycara
    International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
    Paper

  • Trust-Aware Behavior Reflection for Robot Swarm Self-Healing
    Rui Liu, Fan Jia, Wenhao Luo, Meghan Chandarana, Changjoo Nam, Mike Lewis, and Katia Sycara
    International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
    Paper

  • Adaptive Sampling and Online Learning in Multi-Robot Sensor Coverage with Mixture of Gaussian Processes
    Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2018
    Paper

  • A Computational Framework for Integrating Task Planning and Norm Aware Reasoning for Social Robots
    Vigneshram Krishnamoorthy, Wenhao Luo, Michael Lewis, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2018
    Paper

  • Decentralized Method for Sub-swarm Deployment and Rejoining
    Meghan Chandarana, Wenhao Luo, Michael Lewis, Katia Sycara, and Sebastian Scherer
    IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2018
    Paper

  • Decentralized Coordinated Motion for a Large Team of Robots Preserving Connectivity and Avoiding Collisions
    Anqi Li, Wenhao Luo, Sasanka Nagavalli, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2017
    Paper

  • Online Decision Making for Stream-based Robotic Sampling via Submodular Optimization
    Wenhao Luo, Changjoo Nam, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems (MFI), 2017
    Paper

  • Distributed Knowledge Leader Selection for Multi-Robot Environmental Sampling Under Bandwidth Constraints
    Wenhao Luo, Shehzaman S. Khatib, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016
    Paper

  • Handling State Uncertainty in Distributed Information Leader Selection for Robotic Swarms
    Anqi Li, Wenhao Luo, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC), 2016
    Paper

  • Distributed Dynamic Priority Assignment and Motion Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints
    Wenhao Luo, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
    American Control Conference (ACC), 2016
    Paper

  • Asynchronous Distributed Information Leader Selection in Robotic Swarms
    Wenhao Luo, Shehzaman S. Khatib, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
    IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2015
    Paper

  • Optimal Real-time Trajectory Planning for a Fixed Wing Vehicle in 3D Dynamic Environment
    Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, and Jing Wang
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2013
    Paper

  • An Improved Parameterized Approach for Real Time Optimal Motion Planning of AUV Moving in Dynamic Environment
    Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, and Jing Wang
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), 2013
    Paper

  • A Unified Optimization Method for Real-Time Trajectory Generation of Mobile Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints in Dynamic Environment
    Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, Weirong Liu, Jing Wang, and Wentao Yu
    IEEE International Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), 2013
    Paper

Workshop Articles

  • No-Regret Safe Learning for Online Nonlinear Control with Control Barrier Functions
    Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
    Workshop on Safe Robot Control with Learned Motion and Environment Models, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA Workshop), 2021
    Paper Spotlight Talk

  • Online Connectivity-aware Dynamic Distribution for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems
    Chendi Lin, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
    Workshop on Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Task Allocation and Coordination, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS Workshop), 2020
    Paper Spotlight Talk

  • Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems with Probabilistic Safety Barrier Certificates
    Wenhao Luo, and Ashish Kapoor
    Workshop on Safety and Robustness in Decision-making, Thirty-third Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS Workshop), 2019
    Paper Video