Yicheng Chen

Yicheng Chen

PhD student in Mechanical Engineering

The University of Tokyo

Hello! I’m Yicheng.

I am currently a PhD student at the University of Tokyo. I am passionate about aerial robotics, with a focus on motion planning research.

I obtained my MSc and BEng degree from Beihang University.

Interests
  • Motion Planning
  • Optimization
Education

  • PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, Oct. 2024 -

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

  • MSc in Control Science and Engineering, Sept. 2021 - Jun. 2024

    School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University

  • BEng in Automation, Sept. 2017 - Jun. 2021

    School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University

Posts

Featured Work

Yicheng Chen, Jinjie Li, Haokun Liu, Zicheng Luo, Kotaro Kaneko, Moju Zhao
February, 2026 IEEE T-ASE
Hierarchical Trajectory Planning of Floating-Base Multi-Link Robot for Maneuvering in Confined Environments
Hierarchical Trajectory Planning of Floating-Base Multi-Link Robot for Maneuvering in Confined Environments

A planning framework for floating-base multi-link robots that has been demonstrated on a real robot to generate continuous, collision-free, and dynamically feasible trajectories directly from raw point-cloud inputs, without relying on handcrafted obstacle models.
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Yicheng Chen, Jinjie Li, Wenyuan Qin, Yongzhao Hua, Xiwang Dong, Qingdong Li
March, 2025 IROS 2025
Learning to Initialize Trajectory Optimization for Vision-Based Autonomous Flight in Unknown Environments
Learning to Initialize Trajectory Optimization for Vision-Based Autonomous Flight in Unknown Environments

We introduce NEO-Planner, which uses a neural network to initialize trajectory optimization for autonomous drones, cutting computation by 26% without sacrificing quality.
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Publications

Yicheng Chen, Jinjie Li, Haokun Liu, Zicheng Luo, Kotaro Kaneko, Moju Zhao (2026). Hierarchical Trajectory Planning of Floating-Base Multi-Link Robot for Maneuvering in Confined Environments. IEEE T-ASE.

PDF Cite Video DOI

Yicheng Chen, Jinjie Li, Wenyuan Qin, Yongzhao Hua, Xiwang Dong, Qingdong Li (2025). Learning to Initialize Trajectory Optimization for Vision-Based Autonomous Flight in Unknown Environments. IROS 2025.

PDF Cite Code Video DOI

Yicheng Chen, Lingling Wang (2022). Adaptively Dynamic RRT*-Connect: Path Planning for UAVs Against Dynamic Obstacles. CACRE 2022.

Cite DOI Slides

Huan Chang, Yicheng Chen, Baochang Zhang, David Doermann (2021). Multi-UAV Mobile Edge Computing and Path Planning Platform Based on Reinforcement Learning. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence.

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Projects

Aug 4, 2023
Aeriva: A Mini Autonomous Quadrotor Platform
Aeriva: A Mini Autonomous Quadrotor Platform

I designed and assembled this safe and agile 3.5-inch drone. It has been used in various scientific research and competitions in my lab.
May 20, 2022
SLAM Practice on Unmanned Ground Vehicles
SLAM Practice on Unmanned Ground Vehicles

Implemented some basic SLAM algorithms on a TurtleBot and an Ackerman mini vehicle.
Dec 23, 2018
2018 Beihang Robot Competition
2018 Beihang Robot Competition

Built an Arduino-based robot with the following functions: line tracking, obstacle avoidance, object grabbing, and Bluetooth remote control.

Moments

I love playing sports, such as long-distance running 🏃, hiking 🥾, cycling 🚴, table tennis 🏓, and snowboarding 🏂.