Haonan Chen

I am a Ph.D. candidate in ECE at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My research interests focus on learning structured models for robotic manipulation. I am fortunate to be advised by Katie Driggs-Campbell and work closely with Yunzhu Li.

I have conducted extensive research in pushing new capabilities for robotics using machine learning.

Email  /  CV  /  Google Scholar  

profile photo

News

Research

My research focuses on robotic manipulation, imitation learning, and human-robot interaction. I develop algorithms that enable robots to learn from human demonstrations and improve their manipulation skills in complex environments.

Tool-as-Interface: Learning Robot Tool Use from Human Play through Imitation Learning
H. Chen, C. Zhu, Y. Li, K. Driggs-Campbell
Under Review, 2025
Project & Video / Paper

Best Presentation Award at CSLSC 2025

Learning Coordinated Bimanual Manipulation Policies using State Diffusion and Inverse Dynamics Models
H. Chen, J. Xu*, L. Sheng*, T. Ji, S. Liu, Y. Li, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
Project & Video / Paper
Cooperative Advisory Residual Policies for Congestion Mitigation
A. Hasan, N. Chakraborty, H. Chen, J.-H. Cho, C. Wu, K. Driggs-Campbell
ACM Journal on Autonomous Transportation Systems (JATS), 2024
Paper
Lessons in Cooperation: A Qualitative Analysis of Driver Sentiments towards real-time Advisory Systems through a Focus Group User Study
A. Hasan, N. Chakraborty, H. Chen, J.-H. Cho, C. Wu, K. Driggs-Campbell
Under Review, 2024
Paper
Predicting Object Interactions with Behavior Primitives: An Application in Stowing Tasks
H. Chen, Y. Niu*, K. Hong*, S. Liu, Y. Wang, Y. Li, K. Driggs-Campbell
Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), 2023
Project & Video / Paper

Finalist - Best Paper/Best Student Paper Awards
Towards Safety of Multi-Level Human-Robot Interaction in Industrial Tasks
Z. Huang, Y. Mun, H. Chen, Y. Xie, Y. Niu, X. Li, N. Zhong, H. You, D.L. McPherson, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Special Session on Cyberphysical Manufacturing Networks, 2023
Learning Task Skills and Goals Simultaneously from Physical Interaction
H. Chen*, Y. Mun*, Z. Huang, Y. Niu, Y. Xie, D.L. McPherson, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), Special Session on Cyberphysical Manufacturing Networks, 2023
PeRP: Personalized Residual Policies For Congestion Mitigation Through Co-operative Advisory Systems
A. Hasan, N. Chakraborty*, H. Chen*, J-H. Cho, C. Wu, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2023
Paper / Website

Best Presentation Award at CSLSC 2024

Combining Model-Based Controllers and Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning for Traffic Simulation
H. Chen, T. Ji, S. Liu, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2022
Paper
Learning to Navigate Intersections with Unsupervised Driver Trait Inference
S. Liu, P. Chang, H. Chen, N. Chakraborty, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2022
Paper / Website / Video
Robot Sound Interpretation: Combining Sight and Sound in Learning-Based Control
P. Chang, S. Liu, H. Chen, K. Driggs-Campbell
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
Paper / Video

Awards and Honors

  • Conference Travel Award, Graduate College, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2023
  • Finalist - Best Paper/Best Student Paper Awards, Conference on Robot Learning 2023
  • Bronze Tablet Award, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2020
  • Excellent Graduate, Zhejiang University 2020
  • Student Speaker at Graduation, ZJU-UIUC Institute 2020
  • Provincial Government Scholarship, Zhejiang Province, China (Top 3%) 2019
  • Dean's List, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2019
  • National Scholarship, China (Top 1.8%) 2018
  • Excellent Undergraduate Scholarship, Zhejiang University (Top 3%) 2018-2019
  • Academic Excellence Scholarship Award, ZJU-UIUC Institute 2017-2019
  • Top Ten Social Practice, Zhejiang University (Top 1.5%) 2017

Service and Leadership

Professional Service

  • Session Chair:
    • CASE - IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, 2023
  • Reviewer:
    • CoRL - Conference on Robot Learning
    • ICRA - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
    • ITSC - IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems
    • CASE - IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering

Extra-Curricular Service

Founding Team Leader, Robotic Team for RoboMaster Challenge, ZJU-UIUC Institute 10/2017 - 06/2018


Thanks Jon Barron for this amazing template.