| CARVIEW |
About Me
I am a Tenured Professor in Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. I'm also in Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology. I served as Senior Editor for International Journal of Robotics Research from 2023. I have been elevated to the rank of IEEE Fellow, effective January 2026, in recognition of contributions to multi-modal embodied perception and learning.
My research work involves several fields of Embodied Intelligence, including Robotics, Dynamic Systems and Machine Learning, with particular emphasis on robotic perception, learning and control which address the three widely-known challenging issues:
Control: With more robotic systems equipped with multi-joint, flexible-link and soft materials, it becomes increasingly demanding to achieve complex dynamic control.
Perception: With the un-structured environment, limited sensing capability and constrained physical interaction, it is intrinsically difficult for a single robot or a group of robots to perceive their environments precisely.
Learning: With the dynamic and consecutive multiple heterogeneous tasks, it is extremely challenging for the robots to perform lifelong learning.
Research Summary
We have been working on tackling the above problems and our long term goal is of establishing a cognitive pathway between the action and perception using innovative learning methodologies. The way to achieve this goal is embodied intelligence. We believe the embodied intelligence is a synergy of morphology, action, perception and learning, rather than themselves alone. Therefore we focus on the bi-directional connections across these components:
Morphology-Action Loop: structured morphology control, and morphology computing
Perception-Action Loop: manipulation&navigation, and active perception
Learning-Action Loop: hierarchical reinforcement learning, and embodied learning
Morphology-Perception Loop: flying-cars and soft grippers
Morphology-Learning Loop: learning from competition and confrontation
Teaching
I am currently responsible for teaching three courses in Tsinghua University:, “Principle of Signal Processing" for undergraduate students, “Embodied Intelligence” and “Uncertain Artificial Intelligence” for graduate students, “Dynamic Systems Analysis and Control”(former) for undergraduate students, all of which are closely related to my research fields. The various research topics in the different fields motivate me to investigate the intrinsic relationship among them from the perspective of a teacher. Therefore, I develop several illustrative projects which bridge the pedagogical gap between Systems Analysis and Machine Learning. A representative example is the dynamic video texture for dynamic system stability analysis, which provides the opportunity for students with no access to mechanical or electronic equipment to learn system stability. A detailed description can be found in [TE_2014]. In addition, we have published a Chinese textbook Introduction to Embodied Intelligence [EI_2024] in 2024.
I was afforded the Distinguished Teaching Award for Young Scholars in Tsinghua University at 2016.
The courses Dynamic Systems Analysis and Control has been ranked as Excellent Course in Tsinghua University from 2015.
Publication
[TE_2014] Huaping Liu, Wei Xiao, Hongyan Zhao, Fuchun Sun, Learning and understanding system stability using illustrative dynamic texture examples, IEEE Transactions on Education, vol.57, no.1, 2014, pp.4-11.
[EI_2024] Huaping Liu, Di Guo, Fuchun Sun, Introduction to Embodied Intelligence, Higher Education Press, 2024 (in Chinese)