arXiv subjects

Yan Ning

Publications and source records attributed to Yan Ning.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

SixthSense: Task-Agnostic Proprioception-Only Whole-Body Wrench Estimation for Humanoids

Humanoid robots are entering our physical world at scale, yet as oversized toys--good at singing and dancing, but short on force-interaction capabilities for practical tasks. Bridging this gap necessitates prioritizing reliable contact perception as a fundamental requirement. Estimating external wrenches in humanoids is complicated by floating-base dynamics and indeterminate contact locations. Existing analytical frameworks require idealistic assumptions and hard-to-obtain measurements, which are often unavailable in practice. To bridge this gap, we propose SixthSense, a task-agnostic approach that infers whole-body contact timing, location, and wrenches from proprioception and IMU data alone. To capture the multi-modal dynamics between unstructured contact inputs and the uncertain motion outputs, we employ conditional flow matching to tokenize proprioceptive histories and estimate a spatiotemporally sparse contact-event flow. SixthSense serves as a plug-and-play perception module for applications including collision detection, physical human-robot interaction, and force-feedback teleoperation. Experiments across standing, walking, and whole-body motion-tracking policies showcased unprecedented performance in diverse behaviors.

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arXiv2026

X2-N: A Transformable Wheel-legged Humanoid Robot with Dual-mode Locomotion and Manipulation

Wheel-legged robots combine the efficiency of wheeled locomotion with the versatility of legged systems, enabling rapid traversal over both continuous and discrete terrains. However, conventional designs typically employ fixed wheels as feet and limited degrees of freedom (DoFs) at the hips, resulting in reduced stability and mobility during legged locomotion compared to humanoids with flat feet. In addition, most existing platforms lack a full upper body with arms, which limits their ability to perform dexterous manipulation tasks. In this letter, we present X2-N, a high-DoF transformable robot with dual-mode locomotion and manipulation. X2-N can operate in both humanoid and wheel-legged forms and transform seamlessly between them through joint reconfiguration. We further propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based whole-body control framework tailored to this morphology, enabling control across hybrid locomotion, transformation, and manipulation. We validate X2-N in a range of challenging locomotion and manipulation tasks, including dynamic skating-like motion, stair climbing, and package delivery. Results demonstrate high

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arXiv2025

Improved Extended Kalman Filter-Based Disturbance Observers for Exoskeletons

The nominal performance of mechanical systems is often degraded by unknown disturbances. A two-degree-of-freedom control structure can decouple nominal performance from disturbance rejection. However, perfect disturbance rejection is unattainable when the disturbance dynamic is unknown. In this work, we reveal an inherent trade-off in disturbance estimation subject to tracking speed and tracking uncertainty. Then, we propose two novel methods to enhance disturbance estimation: an interacting multiple model extended Kalman filter-based disturbance observer and a multi-kernel correntropy extended Kalman filter-based disturbance observer. Experiments on an exoskeleton verify that the proposed two methods improve the tracking accuracy $36.3\%$ and $16.2\%$ in hip joint error, and $46.3\%$ and $24.4\%$ in knee joint error, respectively, compared to the extended Kalman filter-based disturbance observer, in a time-varying interaction force scenario, demonstrating the superiority of the proposed method.

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arXiv2025

Fundamental theorem of Poisson 3-Lie $(A,H)$-Hopf modules

Let $H$ be a Hopf algebra with a bijective antipode and $A$ an $H$-comodule Poisson 3-Lie algebra. Assume that there exists an $H$-colinear map which is also an algebra map from $H$ to the Poisson center of $A$. In this paper we generalize the fundamental theorem of $(A, H)$-Hopf modules to Poisson 3-Lie $(A, H)$-Hopf modules and deduce relative projectivity in the category of Poisson 3-Lie $(A, H)$-Hopf modules.

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arXiv2025

Fundamental theorem of transposed Poisson $(A,H)$-Hopf modules

Transposed Poisson algebra was introduced as a dual notion of the Poisson algebra by switching the roles played by the commutative associative operation and Lie operation in the Leibniz rule defining the Poisson algebra. Let $H$ be a Hopf algebra with a bijective antipode and $A$ an $H$-comodule transposed Poisson algebra. Assume that there exists an $H$-colinear map which is also an algebra map from $H$ to the transposed Poisson center of $A$. In this paper we generalize the fundamental theorem of $(A, H)$-Hopf modules to transposed Poisson $(A, H)$-Hopf modules and deduce relative projectivity in the category of transposed Poisson $(A, H)$-Hopf modules.

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arXiv2025

Post-Hopf group algebras, Hopf group braces and Rota-Baxter operators on Hopf group algebras

In this paper, we introduce the notions of Hopf group braces, post-Hopf group algebras and Rota-Baxter Hopf group algebras as important generalizations of Hopf brace, post Hopf algebra and Rota-Baxter Hopf algebras respectively. We also discuss their relationships. Explicitly under the condition of cocomutativity, Hopf group braces, post-Hopf group algebras could be mutually obtained, and Rota-Baxter Hopf group algebras could lead to Hopf group braces.

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arXiv2025

Autonomous Flights inside Narrow Tunnels

Multirotors are usually desired to enter confined narrow tunnels that are barely accessible to humans in various applications including inspection, search and rescue, and so on. This task is extremely challenging since the lack of geometric features and illuminations, together with the limited field of view, cause problems in perception; the restricted space and significant ego airflow disturbances induce control issues. This paper introduces an autonomous aerial system designed for navigation through tunnels as narrow as 0.5 m in diameter. The real-time and online system includes a virtual omni-directional perception module tailored for the mission and a novel motion planner that incorporates perception and ego airflow disturbance factors modeled using camera projections and computational fluid dynamics analyses, respectively. Extensive flight experiments on a custom-designed quadrotor are conducted in multiple realistic narrow tunnels to validate the superior performance of the system, even over human pilots, proving its potential for real applications. Additionally, a deployment pipeline on other multirotor platforms is outlined and open-source packages are provided for future developments.

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arXiv2025

Whleaper: A 10-DOF Flexible Bipedal Wheeled Robot

Wheel-legged robots combine the advantages of both wheeled robots and legged robots, offering versatile locomotion capabilities with excellent stability on challenging terrains and high efficiency on flat surfaces. However, existing wheel-legged robots typically have limited hip joint mobility compared to humans, while hip joint plays a crucial role in locomotion. In this paper, we introduce Whleaper, a novel 10-degree-of-freedom (DOF) bipedal wheeled robot, with 3 DOFs at the hip of each leg. Its humanoid joint design enables adaptable motion in complex scenarios, ensuring stability and flexibility. This paper introduces the details of Whleaper, with a focus on innovative mechanical design, control algorithms and system implementation. Firstly, stability stems from the increased DOFs at the hip, which expand the range of possible postures and improve the robot's foot-ground contact. Secondly, the extra DOFs also augment its mobility. During walking or sliding, more complex movements can be adopted to execute obstacle avoidance tasks. Thirdly, we utilize two control algorithms to implement multimodal motion for walking and sliding. By controlling specific DOFs of the robot, we conducted a series of simulations and practical experiments, demonstrating that a high-DOF hip joint design can effectively enhance the stability and flexibility of wheel-legged robots. Whleaper shows its capability to perform actions such as squatting, obstacle avoidance sliding, and rapid turning in real-world scenarios.

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arXiv2024

The NING Humanoid: The Concurrent Design and Development of a Dynamic and Agile Platform

The recent surge of interest in agile humanoid robots achieving dynamic tasks like jumping and flipping necessitates the concurrent design of a robot platform that combines exceptional hardware performance with effective control algorithms. This paper introduces the NING Humanoid, an agile and robust platform aimed at achieving human-like athletic capabilities. The NING humanoid features high-torque actuators, a resilient mechanical co-design based on the Centroidal dynamics, and a whole-body model predictive control (WB-MPC) framework. It stands at 1.1 meters tall and weighs 20 kg with 18 degrees of freedom (DOFs). It demonstrates impressive abilities such as walking, push recovery, and stair climbing at a high control bandwidth. Our presentation will encompass a hardware co-design, the control framework, as well as simulation and real-time experiments.

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arXiv2024

OmniNxt: A Fully Open-source and Compact Aerial Robot with Omnidirectional Visual Perception

Adopting omnidirectional Field of View (FoV) cameras in aerial robots vastly improves perception ability, significantly advancing aerial robotics's capabilities in inspection, reconstruction, and rescue tasks. However, such sensors also elevate system complexity, e.g., hardware design, and corresponding algorithm, which limits researchers from utilizing aerial robots with omnidirectional FoV in their research. To bridge this gap, we propose OmniNxt, a fully open-source aerial robotics platform with omnidirectional perception. We design a high-performance flight controller NxtPX4 and a multi-fisheye camera set for OmniNxt. Meanwhile, the compatible software is carefully devised, which empowers OmniNxt to achieve accurate localization and real-time dense mapping with limited computation resource occupancy. We conducted extensive real-world experiments to validate the superior performance of OmniNxt in practical applications. All the hardware and software are open-access at https://github.com/HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/OmniNxt, and we provide docker images of each crucial module in the proposed system. Project page: https://hkust-aerial-robotics.github.io/OmniNxt.

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arXiv2022

Coverage Control for a Multi-robot Team with Heterogeneous Capabilities using Block Coordinate Descent (BCD) Method

In this paper, we propose a coverage control system for a multi-robot team with heterogeneous capabilities to patrol or monitor a bounded environment. The capability could be defined as any criterion of robots like remaining power or mobile speed, depending on the purpose. The proposed control system aims to allocate different portions of the environment to the robots according to their capabilities, i.e., the robot with higher capability takes a larger portion of the environment while the robot with lower capability takes a smaller one. We use the block coordinate descent (BCD) method to optimize the location of portions and the partitioning method alternately. A centralized machine is used to synchronize the robots and the gradient of each robot can be computed in a distributed manner. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed control system.

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arXiv2019

The construction of braided $T$-category via Yetter-Drinfeld-Long bimodules

Let $H_1$ and $H_2$ be Hopf algebras which are not necessarily finite dimensional and $\alpha,\beta \in Aut_{Hopf}(H_1), \gamma,\delta \in Aut_{Hopf}(H_2)$. In this paper, we introduce a category ${}_{H_1}\mathcal{LR}_{H_2}(\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta)$, generalizing Yetter-Drinfeld-Long bimodules and construct a braided $T$-category $\mathcal{LR}(H_1,H_2)$ containing all the categories $_{H_1}\mathcal{LR}_{H_2}(\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta)$ as components. We also prove that if $(\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta)$ admits a quadruple in involution, then ${}_{H_1}\mathcal{LR}_{H_2}(\alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta)$ is isomorphic to the usual category ${}_{H_1}\mathcal{LR}_{H_2}$ of Yetter-Drinfeld-Long bimodules.

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arXiv2018

The bicrossed products of $H_4$ and $H_8$

Let $H_4$ and $H_8$ be the Sweedler's and Kac-Paljutkin Hopf algebras, respectively. In this paper we prove that any Hopf algebra which factorizes through $H_8$ and $H_4$ (equivalently, any bicrossed product between the Hopf algebras $H_8$ and $H_4$) must be isomorphic to one of the following four Hopf algebras: $H_8 \otimes H_4, H_{32,1}, H_{32,2}, H_{32,3}$. The set of all matched pair $(H_8, H_4, \triangleright, \triangleleft)$ is explicitly described, and then the associated bicrossed products is given by generators and relations.

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arXiv2014

Crossed product and Galois extension of monoidal Hom-Hopf algebras

Let $(H,\alpha)$ be a monoidal Hom-Hopf algebra, and $(A,\beta)$ a Hom-algebra. In this paper we will introduce the crossed product $(A\#_{\sigma}H,\beta\otimes\alpha)$, which is a Hom-algebra. Then we will introduce the notions of cleft extensions and Galois extensions respectively, and prove that a crossed product is equivalent to a cleft extension and a cleft extension is equivalent to a Galois extension with normal bases property.

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arXiv2014

Drinfel'd double for monoidal Hom-Hopf algebras

In this paper we mainly construct bicrossproduct for finite-dimensional monoidal Hom-Hopf algebra $(H,\alpha)$, generalizing the Majid's bicrossproduct. Naturally the Hom-type bicrossproduct leads to Drinfel'd double $(H^{op}\bowtie H^{\ast}, \alpha \otimes (\alpha^{-1})^\ast)$ with a quasitriangular structure $R$ satisfying the quantum Hom-Yang-Baxter equations.

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