Welcome! I’m Haichao Liu (刘海超), currently a visiting scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore (February 2025 - Present), where I am co-supervised by Prof. Tong Heng Lee.

Concurrently, I am pursuing my Ph.D. at the Robot Motion Planning and Control Lab at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (August 2022 - Present), under the guidance of Prof. Jun Ma and Prof. Shaojie Shen.

Previously, I earned my Master’s degree (August 2020 - July 2022) from the Institute of Intelligent Control and Systems and the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System at Harbin Institute of Technology, where I was supervised by Prof. Huijun Gao and Prof. Weiyang Lin.

I also participated in a Postgraduate Study Abroad Program at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The University of Sydney (August 2021 - January 2022). My academic journey began with a Bachelor’s degree in Robot Engineering from Northeastern University (2016 - 2020), within the Faculty of Robot Science and Engineering.

Research Interests

My research interests include the areas of Robotics and Autonomous Driving, with focus on:

• Decision-making, Planning and Control for Autonomous Driving,
• Dexterous Robot Manipulation with Open-vocabulary Commands,

with the following technologies:

• Large Multimodal Language Models,
• Reinforcement learning and imitation learning,
• Convex and non-convex optimization.

I am always open to discussions or potential collaborations, please feel free to contact me at haichao.liu@connect.ust.hk.

Publications

UDMC: Unified Decision-Making and Control Framework for Urban Autonomous Driving with Motion Prediction of Traffic Participants

H. Liu, K. Chen, Y. Li, Z. Huang, M. Liu, and J. Ma, “UDMC: Unified Decision-Making and Control Framework for Urban Autonomous Driving with Motion Prediction of Traffic Participants,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1-16, 2025.

RoboDexVLM: Visual Language Model-Enabled Task Planning and Motion Control for Dexterous Robot Manipulation

H. Liu, S. Guo, P. Mai, J. Cao, H. Li, and J. Ma, “RoboDexVLM: Visual Language Model-Enabled Task Planning and Motion Control for Dexterous Robot Manipulation,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01616, 2025.

VLM-E2E: Enhancing End-to-End Autonomous Driving with Multimodal Driver Attention Fusion

P. Liu, H. Liu, H. Liu, X. Liu, J. Ni, and J. Ma, “VLM-E2E: Enhancing End-to-End Autonomous Driving with Multimodal Driver Attention Fusion,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.18042, 2025.

Robot Navigation in Unknown and Cluttered Workspace with Dynamical System Modulation in Starshaped Roadmap

K. Chen, H. Liu, Y. Li, J. Duan, L. Zhu, and J. Ma, “Robot navigation in unknown and cluttered workspace with dynamical system modulation in starshaped roadmap,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, 2025, pp. 1-7.

CoDriveVLM: VLM-Enhanced Urban Cooperative Dispatching and Motion Planning for Future Autonomous Mobility on Demand Systems

H. Liu, R. Yao, W. Liu, Z. Huang, S. Shen, and J. Ma, “CoDriveVLM: VLM-enhanced urban cooperative dispatching and motion planning for future autonomous mobility on demand systems,” arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.06132, 2025.

Synergizing Decision Making and Trajectory Planning Using Two-Stage Optimization for Autonomous Vehicles

W. Liu, H. Liu, L. Zheng, Z. Huang, and J. Ma, “Synergizing Decision Making and Trajectory Planning Using Two-Stage Optimization for Autonomous Vehicles,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1-15, 2024.

Real-Time Teleoperation in Motion Mapping for Medical Robot Based on Robot Manipulator and Haptic Device

P. Peuchpen, H. Liu, and J. Ma, “Real-Time Teleoperation in Motion Mapping for Medical Robot Based on Robot Manipulator and Haptic Device,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), IEEE, 2024, pp. 1-6.

Enhance Planning with Physics-informed Safety Controller for End-to-end Autonomous Driving

H. Zhou, H. Liu, H. Lu, J. Ma, and Y. Ji, “Enhance planning with physics-informed safety controller for end-to-end autonomous driving,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), IEEE, 2024, pp. 1-8.

LMMCoDrive: Cooperative Driving with Large Multimodal Model

H. Liu, R. Yao, Z. Huang, S. Shen, and J. Ma, “LMMCoDrive: Cooperative Driving with Large Multimodal Model,” arXiv preprint arXiv: 2409.11981, 2024.

Parallel optimization with hard safety constraints for cooperative planning of connected autonomous vehicles

Z. Huang, H. Liu, S. Shen, and J. Ma, “Parallel optimization with hard safety constraints for cooperative planning of connected autonomous vehicles,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE, 2024, pp. 1-7.

Improved consensus ADMM for cooperative motion planning of large-scale connected autonomous vehicles with limited communication

H. Liu, Z. Huang, Z. Zhu, Y. Li, S. Shen, and J. Ma, “Improved consensus ADMM for cooperative motion planning of large-scale connected autonomous vehicles with limited communication,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicles, vol. 0, no. 0, pp. 1-16, 2024.

Incremental learning-based real-time trajectory prediction for autonomous driving via sparse Gaussian process regression

H. Liu, K. Chen, and J. Ma, “Incremental learning-based real-time trajectory prediction for autonomous driving via sparse Gaussian process regression,” in Proceedings of Intelligent Vehicles Symposium(IV), IEEE, 2024, pp. 1-7.

Geometry-aware safety-critical local reactive controller for robot navigation in unknown and cluttered environments

Y. Li, X. Tang, K. Chen, C. Zheng, H. Liu, and J. Ma, “Geometry-aware safety-critical local reactive controller for robot navigation in unknown and cluttered environments,” IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 3419 - 3426, 2024.

Integrated behavior planning and motion control for autonomous vehicles with traffic rules compliance

H. Liu, K. Chen, Y. Li, Z. Huang, J. Duan, and J. Ma, “Integrated behavior planning and motion control for autonomous vehicles with traffic rules compliance,” in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), IEEE, 2023, pp. 1-7.

Real-time parallel trajectory optimization with spatiotemporal safety constraints for autonomous driving in congested traffic

L. Zheng, R. Yang, Z. Peng, H. Liu, M. Y. Wang, and J. Ma, “Real-time parallel trajectory optimization with spatiotemporal safety constraints for autonomous driving in congested traffic,” in Proceedings of 2023 IEEE 26th International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), IEEE, 2023, pp. 1186-1193.

Bio-inspired robot swarm path formation with local sensor scope

Y. Zhao, Z. Qu, H. Liu, and R. Zhu, “Bio-inspired robot swarm path formation with local sensor scope,” Applied Intelligence, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 17310-17326, 2022.

Solving a Multi-robot Search Problem with Bionic Sarsa Algorithm and Artificial Potential Field

H. Liu, Z. Qu and R. Zhu, "Solving a Multi-robot Search Problem with Bionic Sarsa Algorithm and Artificial Potential Field," 2021 China Automation Congress (CAC), Beijing, China, 2021, pp. 1830-1835.

Research on Robot Visual Grabbing Based on Mechanism Analysis

H. Liu, Z. Liu, H. Liu and W. Lin, "Research on Robot Visual Grabbing Based on Mechanism Analysis," 2021 IEEE 11th Annual International Conference on CYBER Technology in Automation, Control, and Intelligent Systems (CYBER), Jiaxing, China, 2021, pp. 181-186.

Internship

• Industrial Robot R&D, Siasun Robot&Automation Co., Ltd from Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Selected Honors

• Outstanding Volunteer Award, 2024, CyberC, IEEE
• Winning Team (1st place) of the Venture Capital on Campus, 2024, HKSTP
• HKUST Postgraduate Scholarship (Guangzhou Pilot Scheme), 2022, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Outstanding Graduate, 2022, Harbin Institute of Technology
• Chiang Chen Oversea Research Scholarship, 2022, Chiang Chen Industrial Charity Foundation
• He Gao Scholarship, 2021, Robotics Institute, Harbin Institute of Technology
• Chiang Chen Scholarship, 2021, School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology
• Outstanding League Cadre, 2021, Harbin Institute of Technology
• First-class Scholarship for PG, 2020, 2021, Harbin Institute of Technology
• Outstanding UG Graduation Thesis, 2020, Faculty of Robot Science and Engineering, NEU
• Outstanding Graduate (Cadre), 2020, Northeastern University
• First-class Scholarship for UG, 2020, Northeastern University
• National Inspirational Scholarship, 2017, 2018, 2019, Ministry of Education of P.R. China
• Outstanding Student, 2017, 2018, 2019, Northeastern University
• Michelin Scholarship, 2017, Northeastern University
• Second Prize of the China University Mathematical Contest in Modeling (CUMCM), 2018, China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Community Services

• Technical Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, Aerospace Science and Technology, IV Symposium, ICRA, IROS, ROBIO, IECON
• Vice President of HKUST-GSAA
• Senate Committee Member of HKUST(GZ)