Xintong (Ian) Yang
Research Associate in robotic manipulation at Cardiff University.
Xintong (Ian) Yang
Research Associate (Postdoc) · Robotics & Manipulation · Cardiff University
I develop robotic systems that manipulate rigid, deformable, and granular objects using learning-based and physics-based methods. My research combines differentiable simulation, system identification, reinforcement learning, and affordance modelling to build capable and trustworthy robots for real-world settings.
Research Projects & Papers · Google Scholar · LinkedIn · Zhihu · Email
About
I am a research associate in the School of Engineering at Cardiff University. My current work spans robotic manipulation of deformable and granular materials, differentiable physics-based modelling, and automation for robotic laboratory systems.
I completed my PhD at Cardiff University in October 2023, where I studied hierarchical reinforcement learning and affordance learning for robotic manipulation. Before that, I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from Guangdong University of Technology, China.
I am also committed to open-source research software and reproducible robotics.
Research Interests
- Deformable and granular material manipulation
- Differentiable physics and system identification
- Reinforcement learning for long-horizon manipulation
- Affordance-guided perception and action
- Reliable real-world robotic systems for human-facing applications
Open-Source & Resources
- SI4RP-data — project page and resources for differentiable physics-based system identification of elastoplastic materials
- pybullet_multigoal_gym — open-source robotic manipulation benchmarks on PyBullet
- UOF-paper-code — code accompanying hierarchical reinforcement learning for multi-step manipulation
News
- [2025 Nov.] DDBot was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. Preprint · Video
- [2025 Oct.] Celebi’s Choice was published at IROS 2025. DOI
- [2025 Feb.] Our work on differentiable physics-based system identification for elastoplastic materials was accepted by IJRR. Preprint · Video · Project page
- [2025 Jan.] I joined a new BBSRC-funded project at Cardiff University on robotic and automated biology laboratories. Grant record
- [2025 Jan.] The AutomaChef preprint became available online. Preprint
- [2024 Jan.] The GAM preprint and video demo became available online. Preprint · Video
Selected Publications
- DDBot: Differentiable Physics-Based Digging Robot for Unknown Granular Materials. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2025. Preprint · Video
- Differentiable Physics-based System Identification for Robotic Manipulation of Elastoplastic Materials. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2025. Preprint · Video · Project Page
- Celebi’s Choice: Causality-Guided Skill Optimisation for Granular Manipulation via Differentiable Simulation. IROS, 2025. DOI
- GAM: General Affordance-Based Manipulation for Contact-Rich Object Disentangling Tasks. Neurocomputing, 2024. Preprint · Video
- Recent Advances of Deep Robotic Affordance Learning: A Reinforcement Learning Perspective. IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems, 2023. Preprint
- Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning with Universal Policies for Multi-Step Robotic Manipulation. IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, 2021. Paper · Video · Code
For a fuller project-oriented overview, visit the Research Projects & Papers page. For the complete publication list, see Google Scholar.