Zhenyu Hou - 侯振宇

I am a research assistant at the FASTLAB laboratory of Zhejiang University’s Huzhou Institute, mentored by Yanjun Cao, Fei Gao, and Chao Xu. I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Cyber Security from the Civil Aviation University of China in June (2024), mentored by Zhijun Wu, And I am preparing to apply for PhD or Master of Research programs.

Research Interests

My research interests focus on field robots, aerial robots, trajectory planning and optimization, and SLAM. I am also very interested in unmanned aerial vehicles, drone swarms, humanoid robots, and quadruped robots, and I plan to integrate traditional robotic perception and planning with reinforcement learning in the future.

I have hands-on experience with a range of robotic platforms, including the Four-Eyed Fisheye Drone, VIO-Based Autonomous Drone, Autonomous Off-Road Differential Vehicles, Autonomous Off-Road Ackermann Vehicles, Mecanum Wheel Dual Gimbal Robot, and LIO-Based Autonomous Drone.

My past research has primarily focused on developing drone path planning algorithms, drone localization and perception algorithms, and analyzing the traversability of ground robots on uneven terrain. Currently, I am particularly interested in integrating large vision-language models with traditional trajectory optimization to enable autonomous systems to perform complex, real-world tasks with greater efficiency and adaptability.

My current research interests include:

  • Multi-Robot Systems
  • Drone Swarm Perception and Planning
  • Ground Robots for Uneven Terrain Navigation
  • SLAM
  • Autonomous Robot Exploration

Publications and Patents

  • Real-time Spatial-temporal Traversability Assessment via Feature-based Sparse Gaussian Process
    Senming Tan†, Zhenyu Hou†, Zhihao Zhang†, Long Xu, Mengke Zhang, Zhaoqi He, Chao Xu, Fei Gao, and Yanjun Cao∗
    † indicates equal contribution (co-first authors)
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2025,Oral) PDF Video Github
  • From Gaussian Processes to Ellipsoidal Obstacles: Safety Control Barrier Functions and Model Predictive Control
    Senming Tan, Zhenyu Hou∗, Miao Wang
    ∗ indicates corresponding author
    The 30th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC 2025 Oral)
  • A Novel Algorithm for Ship Route Planning Considering Motion Characteristics and ENC Vector Maps
    Qinghua He, Zhenyu Hou, Xiaoxiao Zhu∗
    J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2023, 11(6), 1102 PDF
  • Tracailer: An Efficient Trajectory Planner for Tractor-Trailer Vehicles in Unstructured Environments
    Long Xu, Kaixin Chai, Boyuan An, Zhenyu Hou, et al. Chao Xu, Yanjun Cao and Fei Gao∗
    IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering (T-ASE), 2025 （Under Review）
  • An Omnidirectional Wheel-based Aircraft Cargo Hold Mechanical Damage Identification Robot
    Zhenyu Hou, Yu Fu, Yangchen Ding, et al.
    Chinese Invention Patent (Patent No.: CN116238703A)
  • A Rail-based Terminal Inspection Robot
    Linquan Tan, Yutong Fu, Zhenyu Hou, et al.
    Chinese Invention Patent (Patent No.: N116160430A)
  • A Mecanum Wheel-based Security Patrol Robot
    Weixiao Pan, Qinghua He, Zhenyu Hou
    Chinese Invention Patent (Patent No.: CN116238703A)