LAFR accepted by RSS
Our paper LAFR has been accepted by Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS).
About
I am Yunfan Ren 👨🎓 (任云帆), an Associate Professor at Tongji University, where I lead the ORCA Lab (Omni RobotiCs & AI Lab). Before joining Tongji, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Robotics and Perception Group (RPG) with Professor Davide Scaramuzza. I received my Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Hong Kong in July 2025, advised by Professor Fu Zhang in the MaRS Lab.
🚀 正在招生：招收 2027 年春季入学 直博 / 普博生 若干；2027 年秋季入学 硕士生（接收保研推免）；长期招收 博士后。欢迎 本科生 加入科研实习或完成毕业设计。研究方向：自主无人机、灵巧操作、具身智能、世界模型。课题组 经费充足、算力丰富，支持博士/硕士参加 国际顶会 及 海外访学交流（合作院校涵盖 ETH Zürich、UZH、KTH、Oxford、HKU、HKUST、PolyU、NUS、NTU 等）。有意者请邮箱联系。
My research focuses on Autonomous Aerial Robots, Manipulation, Dexterous Manipulation, Swarm Intelligence, Reinforcement Learning, and Embodied AI — enabling robots to perceive, plan, and operate safely in complex real-world environments.
Publications
- Over 30 papers in leading journals and conferences, including Science Robotics, Nature Communications, T-RO, T-Mech, IJRR, RA-L, ICRA, and IROS.
- Paper award recognition, including T-RO Best Paper Award, IJRR Seasonal Best Paper Finalist, ICRA Outstanding Navigation Paper Finalist, and IROS Best Overall & Best Student Paper Finalist.
Academic Service
- Associate Editor for IEEE RA-L and IEEE ICRA 2026.
- Reviewer for Science Robotics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, T-RO, IJRR, RSS, ICRA, and IROS.
Recent News
Boundary map paper selected as IJRR Seasonal Best Paper Finalist
Our IJRR paper "Memory-efficient boundary map for large-scale occupancy grid mapping" has been selected as an IJRR Seasonal Best Paper Finalist, among only three finalists.
FAST-LIVO2 selected as TRO 2026 Best Paper
Our paper "FAST-LIVO2: Fast, direct LiDAR-inertial-visual odometry" has been selected as a TRO 2026 Best Paper.
BoundaryMap accepted by IJRR
Our paper "Memory-efficient boundary map for large-scale occupancy grid mapping" has been accepted by The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR).
New Role as Associate Editor for IEEE RA-L and ICRA 2026！
I am honored to have been elected as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) and the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026.
Our New Paper Published in IEEE/ASME T-Mech
Our new paper, "A Survey on LiDAR-based Autonomous Aerial Vehicles," is now published in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
Starting My Postdoc in RPG at the University of Zurich
Thrilled to join the Robotics and Perception Group under Prof. Davide Scaramuzza!
I was accepted by RSS Pioneers Workshop 2025!
I was selected as a participant of RSS Pioneer Workshop 2025.
Featured Publications
(2026). Learning Agile Quadrotor Flight in the Real World. RSS.
(2025). Safety-assured High-speed Navigation for MAVs. Science Robotics.
(2025). Autonomous Tail-Sitter Flights in Unknown Environments. T-RO.
(2024). Fast-livo2: Fast, direct lidar-inertial-visual odometry. T-RO.