PhD/Postdoc/Visiting Scholar/RA Opportunities on AI, Robotics & Perception at CUHK Hong Kong

PhD/Postdoc/RA (and Visiting Scholar/Prof/Ph.D.) Opportunities in AI, Robotics & Perception at CUHK Hong Kong

 

[RESEARCH AREA]

 

There are multiple openings for Postdoc/RA (and Visiting Scholar/Prof/Ph.D.) to perform research on Medical Robotics Perception & AI at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK, Hong Kong) starting immediately. Particularly, the main areas of interest include AI-assisted endoscopic diagnosis, biorobotics & intelligent systems, multisensory perception, AI learning and control in image-guided procedures, medical mechatronics, continuum, and soft flexible robots and sensors, deployable motion generation, compliance modulation/sensing, cooperative and context-aware flexible/soft sensors/actuators in human environments. For more details, please refer to the recent publications at Google Scholar or the lab website http://labren.org/.

 

The scholars will have opportunities to work with an interdisciplinary team consisting of clinicians and researchers from robotics, AI & perception, imaging, and medicine.
The salary/remunerations will be highly competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience (e.g., Postdoc salary will be typically above 4300USD per month plus medical insurance etc.).

[QUALIFICATIONS]

* Background in AI, Computer Science/Engineering, Electronic or Mechanical Engineering, robotics, medical physics, automation, or mechatronics background
* Preferably have hands-on experience in AI/robots/sensors, instrumentation, intelligent systems

* Strong problem-solving, writing, programming, interpersonal, and analytical skills
* Outstanding academic records/publications or recognitions from worldwide top-ranking institutes
* Self-motivated and preferably with strong academic records 

[HOW TO APPLY]

Qualified candidates are invited to express their interests through an email with detailed supporting documents (including CV, transcripts, HK visa status, research interests, education background, experiences, GPA, representative publications, demo projects) to Prof. Hongliang Ren ASAP email: <hlren@ee.cuhk.edu.hk> Due to the significant amount of emails, we seek understandings that only shortlisted candidates will be informed/invited to interview.

Title: ๐Ÿš€ ICRA 2026: ๐‘บ๐’–๐’“๐’ˆ๐‘ฝ๐’Š๐’…๐‘ณ๐‘ด: ๐‘ป๐’๐’˜๐’‚๐’“๐’…๐’” ๐‘ด๐’–๐’๐’•๐’Š-๐’ˆ๐’“๐’‚๐’Š๐’๐’†๐’… ๐‘ฝ๐’Š๐’…๐’†๐’

๐”๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐‹๐š๐ซ๐ ๐ž ๐‹๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐Œ๐จ๐๐ž๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง ๐‘๐จ๐›๐จ๐ญ-๐š๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐’๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ž๐ซ๐ฒ!

Thrilled to share our latest work, ๐’๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐•๐ข๐๐‹๐Œ, the first video-language model specifically designed to address both full and fine-grained surgical video comprehension.

Surgical scene understanding is critical for training and robotic decision-making. While current Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) excel at image analysis, they often overlook the fine-grained temporal reasoning required to capture detailed task execution and specific procedural processes within a surgery. This motivated us to bridge the gap between global video understanding and micro-action analysis.

๐Ÿง โœจ What we developed:

A novel framework and resource for surgical video reasoning that includes:

๐Ÿ”น ๐“๐ฐ๐จ-๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ ๐ž๐…๐จ๐œ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ž๐œ๐ก๐š๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ: The first stage extracts global procedural context, while the second stage performs high-frequency local analysis for fine-grained task execution.

๐Ÿ”น ๐Œ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ข-๐Ÿ๐ซ๐ž๐ช๐ฎ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ฒ ๐…๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐€๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง (๐Œ๐…๐€): Effectively integrates low-frequency global features with high-frequency local details to ensure comprehensive scene perception.

๐Ÿ”น ๐’๐•๐”-๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ๐Š ๐ƒ๐š๐ญ๐š๐ฌ๐ž๐ญ: We constructed a large-scale dataset with over 31,000 video-instruction pairs, featuring hierarchical knowledge representation for enhanced visual reasoning.

๐ŸŽฏ Key Results:

โœ… SurgVidLM significantly outperforms existing models (like Qwen2-VL) in multi-grained surgical video understanding tasks.

โœ… Capable of inferring anatomical landmarks (e.g., Denonvilliers’ fascia) and providing clinical motivation, moving beyond simple visual description.

โœ… Demonstrated strong performance on unseen surgical tasks, proving the robustness of our hierarchical training approach.

๐Ÿ’ก Why it matters:

This work shows that by combining global context with localized high-frequency focus, we can significantly reduce “hallucinations” in surgical AI. It provides a pathway toward more intelligent, context-aware surgical assistants that can understand not just what is happening, but how and why specific steps are performed.

๐ŸŒฑ Whatโ€™s next?

We are exploring how to extend this multi-grained understanding to real-time intraoperative guidance and integrating it with physical robotic control for autonomous sub-tasks.

๐Ÿš€ ICRA 2026: ย ๐‘ป๐‘ด๐‘น-๐‘ฝ๐‘ณ๐‘จ โ€” ๐‘ฝ๐’Š๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’-๐‘ณ๐’‚๐’๐’ˆ๐’–๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’†-๐‘จ๐’„๐’•๐’Š๐’๐’ ๐‘ด๐’๐’…๐’†๐’ ๐’‡๐’๐’“ ๐‘ด๐’‚๐’ˆ๐’๐’†๐’•๐’Š๐’„ ๐‘บ๐’๐’‡๐’• ๐‘น๐’๐’ƒ๐’๐’•๐’” ๐Ÿค–๐Ÿงฒ

We present TMR-VLA, an end-to-end framework designed for the motion control of tri-leg silicone-based soft robots.

Miniature magnetic robots face a hardware bottleneck where the robot body is too small to integrate onboard sensors or power. This creates a gap between actuation and perception, often requiring human experts to manually adjust magnetic fields based on visual feedback. Our work aims to bridge this gap by enabling autonomous control through a multi-modal system.

๐Ÿง  Technical Framework:

โ—     End-to-End Mapping: The policy translates sequential endoscope images and natural language instructions directly into low-level coil voltage commands.

โ—     Action Adaptor: We utilized an EndoVLA-initialized backbone with an Action LoRA Adaptor that allows the model to autoregressively emit voltage increments.

โ—     TrilegMR-Motion Dataset: The model was trained on a new dataset containing 15,793 image-action pairs across 60 episodes.

โ—     Diverse Locomotion: The system controls five motion primitives: squatting, leg-lifting, rotation, forward movement, and recovery.

๐ŸŽฏ Experimental Results:

โ—     Success Rate: TMR-VLA achieved an average success rate of 74% across tested motion types.

โ—     Performance: The model outperformed general-purpose multimodal models (such as Qwen2.5-VL and LLaVA-1.6) in both instruction interpretation and action execution.

โ—     Inference Speed: Real-time control was demonstrated at approximately 2 Hz using an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU.

๐Ÿ’ก Significance: This study addresses the challenge of autonomous control in untethered soft robots without increasing their structural complexity. It provides a foundational baseline for intelligent navigation in complex in-vivo environments.

Big news! ๐Ÿš€ Our lab is proud to announce that 6 of our latest papers have been accepted! ๐ŸŽŠ

We are incredibly proud of the teamโ€™s hard work and innovation. To give each project the spotlight it deserves, we will be sharing details about each breakthrough one by one over the coming days.

Stay tuned for the updates! ๐Ÿค–โœจ

diagram, schematic

๐Ÿš€๐— ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—•๐—ฒ๐˜†๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜†๐Ÿค–๐Ÿ‘จโ€โš•๏ธ

We are thrilled to share our latest Comment published in #NatureReviewsBioengineering: “๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฎ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜†”.

Current autonomous surgical robots are ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜† ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป-๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ. While they ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป “๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ” anatomy, they ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐˜๐—ผ “๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—น” tissue interactionsโ€”๐—ฎ ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜€๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ต๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†.

In this article, we propose a hierarchical framework for ๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ž๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฎ to bridge this gap:

1. ๐Ÿ“ˆ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฃ๐—ต๐˜†๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น: Integrating proprioception and exteroception for high-res physical sensing.

2. ๐Ÿ’ฌ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—น๐—ด๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น: Moving from raw signal processing to semantic understanding of contact.

3. ๐Ÿง ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น: Implementing Vision-Kinaesthesia-Language-Action models to achieve true sensorimotor synergy.

We believe the future of autonomous surgery lies in systems that can synergistically fuse vision and kinaesthesia to not just see, but truly feel, think, and act.

๐Ÿ“ƒ Read the ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—น๐—น ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ here: [https://lnkd.in/gqTEpYjs]

๐Ÿ‘ Kudos to our amazing team, Dr. Tangyou Liu, Dr. Sishen YUAN, and Prof. Hongliang Ren.

diagram

๐Ÿš€ ๐—œ๐—๐—ฅ๐—ฅ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฒ: ๐—•๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†-๐—”๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐˜€! ๐Ÿค–๐Ÿชข

Thrilled to share our latest The International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR) work on enabling ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†โ€‘๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น for ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒโ€‘๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐˜€๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐˜€ โ€” using ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฎ ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—œ๐— ๐—จ and a powerful ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ต๐˜†๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น simulationโ€‘driven framework.

Soft robots are lightweight and flexible, but their high aspect ratios make them ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜บ sensitive to gravity, causing passive deformation that traditional kinematics just canโ€™t handle. This motivated us to rethink how soft robots can ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ and ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ for gravity โ€” without bulky sensors or complex hardware.

๐Ÿง โœจ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ:

A ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ผโ€‘๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐Ÿฎ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—บ๐Ÿฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ that:

๐Ÿ”น Streams realโ€‘world IMU orientation into a realโ€‘time and robust SOFA simulation

๐Ÿ”น Dynamically reorients virtual gravity to mirror reality

๐Ÿ”น Uses QP optimization to compute jointโ€‘level compensation

๐Ÿ”น Executes compensation in both simulation and the physical robot

All of this โ€” using just ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—œ๐— ๐—จ. No strain sensors. No cameras. No expensive reconstruction systems.

๐ŸŽฏ ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜€:

โœ… >99% compensation recovery in static tests

โœ… ~94% recovery in lowโ€‘motion dynamic tests

โœ… Demonstrated on different two-segment cableโ€‘driven soft robots

๐Ÿ’ก ๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€:

This work shows that soft robots can maintain ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ, ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† by integrating ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด + ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ปโ€‘๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. It reduces reliance on physical sensors and opens a pathway toward ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ, ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†โ€‘๐—ฎ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐˜€.

๐ŸŒฑ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜โ€™๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜?

Weโ€™re exploring how to extend this architecture to virtualizable external force sensing and richer environmental interactions.

Special shoutout to the team โ€”

Jiewen Lai, Tian-Ao Ren (coโ€‘first authors),

Pengfei YE, Yanjun Liu, Jingyao Sun, Hongliang Ren โ€”

for making this project possible.

๐Ÿ”— Paper link: https://lnkd.in/gMgwCfvf

diagram

๐Ÿ“ขExcited to share that our latest research has been accepted by ๐—œ๐—˜๐—˜๐—˜ ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ & ๐—”๐˜‚๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ!๐ŸŽ‰

๐—ง๐—ถ๐˜๐—น๐—ฒ: ๐—” ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ง๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฆ๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ ๐—จ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—›๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—™๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—•๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—บ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฎ๐—น ๐——๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป

๐Ÿ” ๐—•๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ:

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a key technique for early GI cancer treatment, requiring high dexterity and precision.

๐Ÿ›  ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜„๐—ฒ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฑ:

We developed the first ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜€ (๐—›๐—™๐— ๐˜€) for bimanual ESD, integrating:

๐Ÿค– ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—”๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ (๐—ฆ๐—”๐— ) โ€“ for stable, multidirectional tissue traction

๐Ÿ”ฌ ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น๐—ฒ๐—น ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜‚๐˜‚๐—บ ๐—ช๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜ (๐—ฃ๐—–๐—ช) โ€“ for accurate tissue dissection

๐Ÿ“ ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€:

โœ” Kinematic modeling using Denavitโ€“Hartenberg & Cosserat rod methods

โœ” Workspace & dexterity analysis via simulation

โœ” Validation through 16 ex vivo ESD tests

๐Ÿ’ก This work demonstrates a novel strategy for surgical roboticsโ€”leveraging heterogeneous structures to enhance flexibility, stiffness, and accuracy in minimally invasive procedures.

๐Ÿ‘ Kudos to our amazing team and collaborators from CUHK (Prof. Huxin Gao, Tao Zhang, Prof. Hongliang Ren), Qilu Hospital (Xiaoxiao Yang, Prof. ๅทฆ็ง€ไธฝ, Prof. Yanqing Li), Southern University of Science and Technology (Xiao Xiao, Prof. Qinghu Meng), and Beijing Institute of Technology (Prof. Changsheng Li)!

๐Ÿ“– Stay tuned for the full article in IEEE RAM!

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image

๐Ÿš€ Thrilled to share that our recent work has been honored with the ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ ๐—•๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ at ๐—œ๐—˜๐—˜๐—˜ #๐—ฅ๐—ข๐—•๐—œ๐—ข๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ in Chengdu.

๐Ÿ† Paper: Contact-Aided Navigation of Flexible Robotic Endoscope Using Deep Reinforcement Learning in Dynamic Stomach

๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ”ฌ Authors: Chi Kit Ng, Huxin Gao, Tianao Ren, Prof. Jiewen Lai, and Prof. Hongliang Ren

๐Ÿ” ๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€:

Navigating flexible robotic endoscopes in the dynamic, deformable stomach environment is a grand challenge. Our proposed Contact-Aided Navigation (CAN) strategy, powered by deep reinforcement learning and force-feedback, achieved:

โ€ข 100% success rate in both static and dynamic simulated stomach environments

โ€ข Average navigation error of just ๐Ÿญ.๐Ÿฒ ๐—บ๐—บ

โ€ข Robust generalization even under strong external disturbances

This work highlights how ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€-๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐˜€ can transform surgical robotics, enabling safer and more precise navigation in complex clinical environments.

Check the paper at https://lnkd.in/g6KgZTdD

๐Ÿ™ Huge thanks to the team, collaborators, and the broader robotics community for the support and inspiration.

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image

๐Ÿš€Thrilled to share our latest paper, entitled โ€œ๐—จ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—”๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ ๐——๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—”๐˜‚๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ปโ€ has been accepted and published online at ๐™Ž๐™˜๐™ž๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™›๐™ž๐™˜ ๐˜ฟ๐™–๐™ฉ๐™–!

This work introduces a comprehensive dataset designed to advance AI-driven surgical robotics and medical imaging. By capturing detailed ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜†, we aim to support safer, more accurate ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป procedures โ€” paving the way for improved patient outcomes and robust benchmarking in clinical AI.

๐Ÿ”‘ ๐—›๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐—น๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜๐˜€:

– First-of-its-kind dataset focused on airway anatomical landmarks

– Enables benchmarking for automated navigation and intubation tasks

– Openly available to foster collaboration across robotics, AI, and healthcare communities

We hope this resource will accelerate innovation in ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜๐—ต๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ and inspire new interdisciplinary collaborations.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Read the full paper: https://rdcu.be/eS0d5

Grateful to all co-authors and collaborators from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Ruoyi Hao, Zhiqing Tang, Catherine Po Ling Chan, Jason Ying Kuen Chan, Prof. Hongliang Ren), Hubei University of Technology (Zhang Yang), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Yang Zhou), National University of Singapore (Lalithkumar Seenivasan), and Singapore General Hospital (Shuhui 

Xu, Neville Wei Yang Teo, Kaijun Tay, Vanessa Yee Jueen Tan, Jiun Fong Thong, Kimberley Liqin Kiong, Shaun Loh, Song Tar Toh, and Prof. Chwee Ming Lim), for making this possible. Excited to see how others build upon this foundation!

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image

๐Ÿš€ Thrilled to share that our paper โ€œ๐˜‰๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฅ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜“๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜™๐˜ฐ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ต-๐˜ˆ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜š๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜—๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜›๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ: ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜๐˜“-๐˜š๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜—๐˜› ๐˜‹๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฌโ€ has been accepted to ๐—”๐—”๐—”๐—œ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฒ (๐—ข๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—น)! ๐ŸŽ‰

๐Ÿ’กThis work introduces ๐—ฉ๐—Ÿ-๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฃ๐—ง, the first large-scale multimodal dataset that ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ซ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ค ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ด ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด in surgical environments.

๐Ÿ”Alongside the dataset, we propose ๐—ง๐—š-๐—ฆ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ฃ๐—ง, a text-guided point tracking method that consistently outperforms vision-only approaches, especially under challenging intraoperative conditions such as smoke, occlusion, and tissue deformation.

๐Ÿ™ We are deeply grateful to all coauthors and especially our clinical collaborators at Shenzhen Peopleโ€™s Hospital for their invaluable contributions. Looking forward to engaging with the community at AAAI in Singapore and advancing the conversation on multimodal surgical AI!

Check the paper at https://lnkd.in/grfE5iVi

Project Page: https://lnkd.in/gscM_ciV

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image

๐ŸŒ Highlights from the ๐Ÿฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐—–๐Ÿฐ๐—ฆ๐—ฅ+ ๐—ช๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฝ at #IROS2025 ๐ŸŒ

๐ŸŽ‰ Excited to share that the 3rd C4SR+ Workshop: ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™ช๐™ช๐™ข, ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™ข๐™ฅ๐™ก๐™ž๐™–๐™ฃ๐™ฉ, ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™ค๐™ฅ๐™š๐™ง๐™–๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š, ๐˜พ๐™ค๐™œ๐™ฃ๐™ž๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™ซ๐™š ๐™Ž๐™ช๐™ง๐™œ๐™ž๐™˜๐™–๐™ก ๐™๐™ค๐™—๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™ž๐™˜ ๐™Ž๐™ฎ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™ข๐™จ ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™€๐™ข๐™—๐™ค๐™™๐™ž๐™š๐™™ ๐˜ผ๐™„ ๐™€๐™ง๐™– took place during #IROS2025 in Hangzhou, China.

This yearโ€™s workshop attracted ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ ๐—ต๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ โ€” a fantastic turnout that reflects the growing momentum in ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—”๐—œ.

๐ŸŽค Distinguished Speakers

We were honored to host leading experts who shared their groundbreaking research and perspectives, including Prof. Nassir Navab from Technical University of Munich, Prof. Leonardo Mattos from Italian Institute of Technology, Prof. Mingchuan Zhou from Zhejiang University, Prof. Dandan Zhang from Imperial College London, Prof. Yunjie Yang from University of Edinburgh, and Prof. Guoying Gu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

๐Ÿ”‘ Key Themes Discussed

โ€ข Embodied AI in surgery and intelligent operating rooms

โ€ข Soft & continuum robotics for minimally invasive procedures

โ€ข Humanโ€“robot collaboration in clinical practice

โ€ข Cognitive surgical systems and decision-making

๐Ÿ† Workshop Contributions

– 9 oral and 9 poster paper presentations from emerging researchers

– Best Paper & Best Presentation Awards recognizing outstanding contributions

๐Ÿ™ A heartfelt thank you to all speakers, participants, and organizers who made this workshop such a success. The discussions and collaborations will continue to shape the future of surgical robotics.

๐Ÿ”— Learn more about the workshop and its highlights on the official page: https://lnkd.in/gswzMFAy

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image

๐Ÿš€ We had a fantastic time at ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ฅ๐—Ÿ ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ (Seoul)โ€”presenting our paper ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฉ๐—Ÿ๐—”: ๐——๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น-๐—ฃ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป-๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ-๐—”๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—”๐˜‚๐˜๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜† and catching up with friends in the robot-learning community.

The work couples a VLM backbone with a dual-phase training recipe (SFT โ†’ RFT) to turn language prompts into robust tracking and motor commands for a continuum endoscope.

A highlight was a meeting with Prof. Ken Goldbergโ€”especially meaningful since Prof. Ren previously served as a postdoc at UC Berkeley, keeping our CUHKโ†”๏ธŽUCB connection strong.

๐Ÿค Huge thanks to collaborators and everyone who stopped by the poster!

Authors: Chi Kit Ng*, Long Bai*, Guankun Wang*, Yupeng Wang, Huxin Gao, Kun Yuan, Chenhan Jin, Tieyong Zeng, Hongliang Renโ€จAffiliations: CUHK, TUM

No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image
No alternative text description for this image