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Research Assistant & Robotics Ph.D.
About Me
Jiawei Xu, Ph.D., currently a research assistant in CSE department at Lehigh University. I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer System & Electrical Engineering dual major from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
At Lehigh SwarmsLab of AIRLab, I work in aerial physical interaction using quadrotor drones and swarms of robots. I like seeking mathematical descriptions of physical systems with efficient and elegent modeling.
Activities and Research
Activities and Research
Featured Media: Adaptive Transportation of Bendable Objects Using Dual UAVs
Featured Media: Adaptive Transportation of Bendable Objects Using Dual UAVs
Featured News:
Featured News:
2025-08-01: I have given 46 reviews in total! Why 46? Because it is the first time I report this number on this website XD. Next update will be for 100 reviews, which should be more eventful.
2025-07-18: I defended my PhD dissertation! Thanks to my committee members: Dr. David Saldaña, Dr. Jeff Trinkle, Dr. Roberto Palmieri, Dr. Giuseppe Loianno, Dr. Rafael Fierro.
2025-07-18: Our paper publised in LARS 2024, "KT-Imitation: Efficient Visual Imitation for Autonomous Navigation Based on Keypoint Timeline," was selected as a top-10 best paper of the conference!
2025-07-08: Our Journal paper, "Modular Multi-Rotors: From Quadrotors to Fully-Actuated Aerial Vehicles," was accepted to publish in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, extending our 2021 publication in ICRA, "H-ModQuad: Modular Multi-Rotors with 4, 5, and 6 Controllable DOF."
More activities such as camera-ready presentations, promos, and news can be found in the Media tab, News tab, and SwarmsLab's Youtube channel.
Research Items
Research Items
Published
Published
[J2] J. Xu, D. S. D'Antonio, D. Saldaña, "Modular Multi-Rotors: From Quadrotors to Fully-Actuated Aerial Vehicles", in IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, doi: 10.1109/TASE.2025.3594579.
[J1] J. Xu, L. Gao, R. Fierro, and D. Saldaña, "AirBender: Adaptive Transportation of Bendable Objects Using Dual UAVs," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 2790-2797, March 2025, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2025.3536276.
[C10] J. Xu, T. Vu, D. S. D'Antonio, and D. Saldaña, "MochiSwarm: A testbed for robotic micro-blimps in realistic environments," ICRA 2025.
[C9] K. Li*, H. Qi*, J. Xu, E. Jeffs, and D. Saldaña, "KT-Imitation: Efficient Visual Imitation for Autonomous Navigation Based on Keypoint Timeline," Latin American Robotics Symposium ( LARS ), 2024, Arequipa, Peru.
[C8] N. Gandhi, J. Xu, D. Saldaña, and L. T. X. Phan, "Rotor Fault Detection and Isolation in Aerial Vehicles with Dozens of Rotors," Latin American Robotics Symposium ( LARS ), 2024, Arequipa, Peru.
[C7] Z. Yao, S. Hou, J. Xu, M. C. Chuah, "CrackNex: a Few-shot Low-light Crack Semantic Segmentation Model Based on Retinx Theory for UAV Inspections," International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024, Yokohama, Japan.
[C6] Li, K., Hou, S., Negash, M., Xu, J., Jeffs, E., D'Antonio, D.S. and Saldaña, D., 2023, October, "A Novel Low-Cost, Recyclable, Easy-to-Build Robot Blimp For Transporting Supplies in Hard-to-Reach Locations," In 2023 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) (pp. 36-42), IEEE.
[C5] J. Xu, D. S. D'Antonio, D. J. Ammirato and D. Saldaña, "SBlimp: Design, Model, and Translational Motion Control for a Swing-Blimp," 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Detroit, MI, USA, 2023, pp. 6977-6982, doi: 10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10341796.
[C4] J. Cui, J. Xu, D. Saldana and J. Trinkle, "Toward Fine Contact Interactions: Learning to Control Normal Contact Force with Limited Information," 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 2023, pp. 3926-3932, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161224.
[C3] J. Xu and D. Saldaña, "Finding Optimal Modular Robots for Aerial Tasks," 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), London, United Kingdom, 2023, pp. 11922-11928, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10160555.
[W1] D. S. D'Antonio, J. Xu, G. A. Cardona, and D. Saldaña. "Customizable-ModQuad: a Versatile Hardware-Software Platform to Develop Lightweight and Low-cost Aerial Vehicles," IROS 2022 Workshop on MiniRobots, Kyoto, Japan.
[C2] B. Zhu, J. Xu, A. Charway and D. Saldaña, "PogoDrone: Design, Model, and Control of a Jumping Quadrotor," 2022 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2022, pp. 2031-2037, doi: 10.1109/ICRA46639.2022.9811970.
[C1] J. Xu, D. S. D’Antonio and D. Saldaña, "H-ModQuad: Modular Multi-Rotors with 4, 5, and 6 Controllable DOF," 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021, pp. 190-196, doi: 10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561016.
Under Review
Under Review
[J3] K. Aubert*, J. Xu*, D. Saldaña, R. Fierro, "FlySurf: A Flying Robotic Surface with Model Predictive Morphing Control and Estimation," to IEEE T-RO, 2025
* Shared first-authorship
* Shared first-authorship
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