Wenqiang Xu

Institute of Trustworthy Embodied AI

Fudan University, Shanghai, China

wenqiangxu [at] fudan.edu.cn

I am an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Trustworthy Embodied AI, Fudan University, leading 交叉学科智能系统设计与实现实验室 (Design and Realization of Interdisciplinary Intelligent System Lab, DrXs Lab). We are recruiting PhD students, master’s students, interns and postdocs for research. If you are interested, please check out more details at Group Page.

Before joining Fudan, I was a Research Fellow at NUS, advised by Prof. Shao Lin, and an Assistant Research Fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. My PhD and MS were completed at the School of SEIEE, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, under the supervision of Prof. Cewu Lu. Prior to this, I earned my bachelor’s degree from the School of the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China.

My research interest centers on the safety of robot interaction: how robots can work in physical contact with people/objects without putting them at risk. I approach it along four directions — human motion mechanisms (musculoskeletal modeling and biomechanically grounded motion understanding), omni-modal perception & high-frequency force control (fusing vision, touch, force and proprioception into a single picture of contact), safe interaction policy (during navigation, locomotion and manipulation), and the design of novel embodiments and sensors that make safe physical interaction a property of the hardware itself.

news

Oct 1, 2026	I joined the Institute of Trustworthy Embodied AI, Fudan University as an Assistant Professor. I am recruiting students, interns and postdocs working on safe robot interaction.
Jun 16, 2026	2 papers are accepted by IROS 2026.
Jan 31, 2026	2 papers are accepted by ICRA 2026.
Dec 31, 2025	3 papers are accepted by IROS/ICCV, including 2 IROS Oral.
Dec 30, 2025	Selected in Forbes 30 under 30 2025 China.
Dec 31, 2024	10 papers are accepted by CVPR/IROS/RA-L/PAMI/Nature Communications, including 1 IROS Oral Pitch.
Dec 31, 2023	6 papers are accepted by CVPR/RSS/ICCV/CoRL, including 1 ICCV Oral.
Dec 31, 2022	6 papers are accepted by IROS/CVPR/CoRL/ICRA/TIP, including 1 IROS Best RoboCup Award & Best Paper Finalist, 1 CVPR Oral, 1 CoRL Oral.

talks

Jun 16, 2025	Some in-door seminars. Not disclosure.
Jun 29, 2024	Empowered AI at AIEC. Thank Harvard Club of Wuxi for the invitation.
Aug 16, 2022	RFUniverse at Stanford Vision and Learning Lab. Thank Chen Wang for the invitation.

awards

2025	Forbes China 30 Under 30, Forbes China
2025	MIT C.C. Tung Global Collaboration Fellowship, MIT
2021	Yunfan Award, World Conference on Artificial Intelligence (WAIC)

selected publications

Capturing forceful interaction with deformable objects using a deep learning-powered stretchable tactile array

Chunpeng Jiang*, Wenqiang Xu*, Yutong Li, Zhenjun Yu, Longchun Wang, Xiaotong Hu, Zhengyi Xie, Qingkun Liu, Bin Yang, Xiaolin Wang, Wenxin Du, Tutian Tang, Dongzhe Zheng, Siqiong Yao, Cewu Lu, and Jingquan Liu

Nature Communications, 2024

Bib PDF Website

@article{vitam,
  title = {Capturing forceful interaction with deformable objects using a deep learning-powered stretchable tactile array},
  author = {Jiang*, Chunpeng and Xu*, Wenqiang and Li, Yutong and Yu, Zhenjun and Wang, Longchun and Hu, Xiaotong and Xie, Zhengyi and Liu, Qingkun and Yang, Bin and Wang, Xiaolin and Du, Wenxin and Tang, Tutian and Zheng, Dongzhe and Yao, Siqiong and Lu, Cewu and Liu, Jingquan},
  journal = {Nature Communications},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group UK London},
}

DiPGrasp: Parallel Local Searching for Efficient Differentiable Grasp Planning

Wenqiang Xu*, Jieyi Zhang*, Tutian Tang, Zhenjun Yu, Yutong Li, and Cewu Lu

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024

Bib PDF Website

@article{dipgrasp,
  title = {DiPGrasp: Parallel Local Searching for Efficient Differentiable Grasp Planning},
  author = {Xu*, Wenqiang and Zhang*, Jieyi and Tang, Tutian and Yu, Zhenjun and Li, Yutong and Lu, Cewu},
  journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {IEEE},
}

Differentiable Fluid Physics Parameter Identification By Stirring and For Stirring

Wenqiang Xu*, Dongzhe Zheng*, Yutong Li, Jieji Ren, and Cewu Lu

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2024 Oral Pitch

Bib PDF Website

@inproceedings{diffstir,
  title = {Differentiable Fluid Physics Parameter Identification By Stirring and For Stirring},
  author = {Xu*, Wenqiang and Zheng*, Dongzhe and Li, Yutong and Ren, Jieji and Lu, Cewu},
  booktitle = {{IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems},
  year = {2024},
  organization = {IEEE},
}

RCare World: A Human-centric Simulation World for Caregiving Robots

Ruolin Ye*, Wenqiang Xu*, Haoyuan Fu, Rajat Kumar Jenamani, Vy Nguyen, Cewu Lu, Katherine Dimitropoulou, and Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee

In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2022 Best RoboCup Award & Best Paper Finalist

Bib PDF Website

@inproceedings{rcare,
  title = {RCare World: A Human-centric Simulation World for Caregiving Robots},
  author = {Ye*, Ruolin and Xu*, Wenqiang and Fu, Haoyuan and Jenamani, Rajat Kumar and Nguyen, Vy and Lu, Cewu and Dimitropoulou, Katherine and Bhattacharjee, Tapomayukh},
  booktitle = {{IEEE/RSJ} International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems},
  pages = {33--40},
  year = {2022},
  organization = {IEEE},
}

ClothPose: A Real-World Benchmark for Visual Analysis of Garment Pose via An Indirect Recording Solution

Wenqiang Xu*, Wenxin Du*, Han Xue, Yutong Li, Ruolin Ye, Yan-Feng Wang, and Cewu Lu

In ICCV IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision, 2023 Oral

Bib PDF Website

@inproceedings{clothpose,
  title = {ClothPose: A Real-World Benchmark for Visual Analysis of Garment Pose via An Indirect Recording Solution},
  author = {Xu*, Wenqiang and Du*, Wenxin and Xue, Han and Li, Yutong and Ye, Ruolin and Wang, Yan-Feng and Lu, Cewu},
  booktitle = {{ICCV} IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision},
  pages = {58--68},
  year = {2023},
}