People

Dr Yuanchang Liu is Associate Professor and Chair of Marine Research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. Dr Liu's research primarily focuses on automation and autonomy, with a special emphasis on exploring technologies related to sensing, perception, and the guidance and control of intelligent and autonomous vehicles. He was featured among the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in both 2022 and 2023. Additionally, he received the Denny Medal, awarded by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science, and Technology (IMarEST) for his influential work in the realm of marine robotics.
Dr Yuanchang Liu has made significant contributions to the field of RAS, particularly in the areas of sensor fusion, planning and control, and machine learning.

Yang Hu is an MPhil/PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UCL. Her research focuses on motion control and planning for marine robots, with the aim of enhancing their autonomous task performance by enabling adaptation to complex and highly dynamic ocean environments.

Junfeng Xue received the M.S. degree of Control Science and Technology from Beijing Institute of Technology in China in 2024. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, UK. His research interests include control and state planning considering multi-sensor information for USV. He has been awarded the Best Conference Paper Finalist of World Robot Conference on Advanced Robotics and Automation in 2022.

Sara Aldhaheri is an MPhil/PhD Mechanical Engineering student at University College London. Her research focuses on motion planning optimization for autonomous underwater vehicles.

Project Title: Towards Autonomous Underwater Manipulation

Ye Li is a Mechanical Engineering MPhil/PhD student at University College London. His research focuses on robotic autonomous exploration and mapping for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs).

Nana Kutin is an MPhil/PhD Student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UCL. His research interests revolve around decarbonisation and future fuels for the maritime Industry. Before joining the research group, he worked in Industry as a vessel tracking analyst at Lloyds List Intelligence and also as a market reporter at Argus Media covering the marine fuels market.

Project Title: Cutting Maritime Emissions with Intelligent Routing: A data-driven AIS based Approach

Yongchang Xie is a PhD researcher specialising in enhancing maritime environment perception with 3D LiDAR technology. His pioneering work focuses on developing a novel framework for robust detection and tracking of floating objects by Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) in high-traffic marine zones. Unlike traditional camera-based methods, Xie's approach leverages LiDAR to overcome environmental sensitivity issues and provide precise spatial location data for detected targets. His framework integrates advanced techniques including Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) like PointPillar, SECOND, and PV-RCNN for efficient 3D point cloud analysis and object detection. Additionally, he employs a Kalman Filter-based multi-object tracking system to ensure reliable performance in complex docking scenarios and other challenging environments. Xie's research demonstrates significant advancements in USV perception capabilities, promising practical applications in maritime safety and automation.

Song Ma is a PhD researcher. His research interests include multi-agent planning and robotic exploration.

Dr Meriem Ben Miled obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2024 under the supervision of Dr Yuanchang Liu.

Yanhong Huang is a visiting PhD student from Wuhan University of Technology. Her main research focuses on maritime image enhancement, federated learning-based visual object detection and multi-sensor fusion. Huang’s methods are effective for environmental perception and data privacy protection in maritime surveillance.