CV
Yangmengfei Xu, PhD student in robotics at the University of Melbourne.
Contact Information
| Name | Yangmengfei (Murphy) Xu |
| Professional Title | PhD Candidate in Robotics |
| yangmengfei@unimelb.edu.au | |
| Location | The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010 |
Experience
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2021 - 2023 Melbourne, Australia
Research Engineer
The University of Melbourne & Boton Technology
- Led an industry university collaboration developing autonomous cleaning robots for material handling systems in the mining sector.
- Responsible for system design, autonomous navigation, computer vision, and AI decision-making modules for large-scale industrial deployment.
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2021 - Present Melbourne, Australia
Course Tutor and Project Supervisor
The University of Melbourne
- Deliver tutorials and laboratory workshops across engineering and robotics subjects; prepare teaching materials and assessments, mark assignments and examinations, and provide structured feedback to students.
- Co-supervised more than 30 capstone and research projects, providing guidance on project planning, experimental design, implementation, and weekly progress, with selected projects leading to publishable research outcomes.
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2020 - 2022 Melbourne, Australia
Robotics Instructor
AI Cubed Academy
- Delivered robotics and programming courses to K-12 students, fostering interest in STEM fields.
- Developed curriculum and hands-on projects to enhance student engagement and learning outcomes.
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2017 - Present Melbourne, Australia
Founder and President
Ausdroid AI and Robotics Student Group
- Grew the community to 300 members, organizing regular meetups, workshops, and guest lectures from academic and industry professionals.
- Established partnerships with local and global tech companies to provide internship and project opportunities for members.
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2012 - 2013 Suzhou, China
Volunteer
Suzhou Ocean Paradise Autistic Children's Rehabilitation Center
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2012 - 2015 Suzhou, China
Committee Member
Suzhou Full House Charity Shop
Education
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2022 - Present Melbourne, Australia
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
The University of Melbourne
Engineering and IT
- Expected thesis submission: late 2026.
- Research Focus: Control systems and sensing technology in autonomous navigation for mobile robots in complex environments.
- Rowden White Scholarship (awarded to the highest-ranked applicant in the department; one recipient per year).
- Melbourne Research Scholarship.
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2019 - 2022 Melbourne, Australia
Master of Philosophy (MPhil)
The University of Melbourne
Engineering and IT
- Thesis: “Inducing human movement pattern change.”
- Melbourne Research Scholarship (Fee Offset).
- Developed a novel robotic framework to induce human motor adaptation through manipulation of motor cost, without explicit error feedback.
- Conducted human subject experiments to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, demonstrating significant improvements in motor learning and adaptation.
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2016 - 2018 Melbourne, Australia
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2012 - 2016 Liverpool, UK
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2012 - 2016 Suzhou, China
Bachelor of Engineering (BEng)
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Research Experience
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Control and Planning Design for Autonomous Robots in Mining Engineering
Researcher
- Developed robust control and planning methods for autonomous and multi-robot systems, including Spatial Iterative Learning Control, Active Disturbance Rejection Control for non-holonomic robots, and geometry-based distributed connectivity maintenance for visual-sensing agents.
- Demonstrated disturbance rejection in harsh environments (Unmanned Systems, 2023), connectivity preservation under uncertainty (Unmanned Systems, 2024), and spatial learning control under input saturation and variable task duration (IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2026).
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Human Motor Adaptation in Rehabilitation Robotics
Researcher
- Designed and conducted human experiments to induce implicit motor adaptation through energy-based cost shaping using a manipulandum platform; developed the Indirect Shaping Control framework for movement retraining.
- Demonstrated indirect and implicit motor adaptation through robot-generated force fields (IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 2021), and established a quantitative link between human motor cost and movement adaptation (IFAC, 2026).
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Autonomous Community-Sharing Service Robot
Project Leader
- Designed and developed an autonomous community-sharing robot to foster social connection and sustainability through item exchange and collective memory creation.
- Demonstrated how robotics can support community belonging and environmental responsibility; the prototype was presented at the HRI 2025 Student Design Competition and was awarded the HRI 2025 Sustainability Recognition.
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Epistemic Logic Modeling of Human Theory of Mind
Project Leader
- Developed the Predictive Justified Perspective (PJP) model for representing and predicting higher-order beliefs in dynamic multi-agent environments, with applications to human–robot interaction and epistemic planning.
- Investigated bounded human reasoning through pilot user studies (CHI EA, 2025) and predictive belief updates for dynamic epistemic planning using PJP (SoCS, 2026).
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PyPose Open-Source Robotics Library
Developer
- Contributed core capabilities to PyPose, an open-source robotics library with 1.6k+ GitHub stars, focusing on point-cloud processing and registration; co-authored the PyPose v0.6 paper presented at the IROS 2023 Workshop.
Awards
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2025 Engineering and IT Conference Travel Scholarship
The University of Melbourne
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2025 Sustainability Recognition Award
2025 20th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)
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2022 Rowden White Scholarship
The University of Melbourne
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2022 Melbourne Research Scholarship
The University of Melbourne
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2021, 2019 ICRA RoboMaster AI Challenge Third Prize
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
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2019 Melbourne Research Scholarship
The University of Melbourne
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2018 ICRA RoboMaster AI Challenge Finalist
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Publications
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2026 Spatial Iterative Learning Control for Nonholonomic Robotics With Input Saturation
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
Early access.
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2026 Motor Cost Re-Optimization in Indirect Human Movement Pattern Adaptation
23rd IFAC World Congress
Presented in Busan, South Korea.
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2026 Beyond Static Assumptions: the Predictive Justified Perspective Model for Epistemic Planning
Proceedings of the International Symposium on Combinatorial Search
Volume 19, issue 1, pages 65–73.
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2025 -
2023 PyPose v0.6: The Imperative Programming Interface for Robotics
IEEE/RSJ IROS 2023 Workshop
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2021 Inducing Human Motor Adaptation Without Explicit Error Feedback: A Motor Cost Approach
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
Skills
Programming (Master): Python, C++, C, MATLAB/Simulink, LabVIEW
Tools and Frameworks (Master): ROS/ROS2, PyTorch, CUDA, OpenCV, Docker, Git
CAD Software (Master): SolidWorks
PCB Design (Intermediate): Altium Designer, JLC EDA
Languages (Fluent): English, Chinese