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Zizhe Zhang

张 Zhang /d͡ʒɑːŋ/ 子哲 Zizhe /ˌd͡ziːˈd͡ʒə/
Robotics Researcher

I’m currently a second-year Robotics MSE student at the GRASP Lab, advised by Prof. Nadia Figueroa. I also work as a research assistant at Figueroa Robotics Lab@Penn. Previously, I received my bachelor’s degree in Measuring Control Technology & Instruments from Southeast University, advised by Prof. Yuan Yang.

My research interests encompass Control Theory, Robot Learning, Human-Robot Interaction, and Neuro‑Symbolic.

News

Oct 24, 2025 I am excited to share that our work VPP-TC received the 🏆Best Contribution Award (First Prize) at IROS Workshop on Exploring the Role of Energy in Robot Learning and Control, 2025.
Oct 20, 2025 I am excited to share that our work VPP-TC received the 🏆Best Student Paper Award at IROS Workshop on Building Safe Robots, 2025.
Jun 21, 2025 I will serve as a volunteer in RSS 2025, Los Angeles.
May 31, 2025 Joined the DexLab at Duke University as a Visiting Scholar till August, under the supervision of Prof. Xianyi Cheng.
Feb 10, 2025 My first journal paper has been accepted to IEEE RA-L today!
Nov 14, 2024 Joined Figueroa Robotics Lab@Penn, under the supervision of Prof. Nadia Figueroa.

Selected Publications

  1. Viability-Preserving Passive Torque Control
    Zizhe Zhang*, Yicong Wang*, Zhiquan Zhang, Tianyu Li, and Nadia Figueroa
    🏆 Best Student Paper Award at IROS Workshop on Building Safe Robots, 2025
    🏆 Best Contribution Award at IROS Workshop on Exploring the Role of Energy in Robot Learning and Control, 2025
    Under Review, 2025
    Award / arXiv / pdf / Website
  2. Flow with the Force Field: Learning 3D Compliant Flow Matching Policies from Force and Demonstration-Guided Simulation Data
    Tianyu Li* , Yihan Li* , Zizhe Zhang, and Nadia Figueroa
    IROS Workshop on Exploring the Role of Energy in Robot Learning and Control, 2025
    IROS Workshop on Contact and Impact-aware Manipulation, 2025
    Under Review, 2025
    arXiv / pdf / Website
  3. VLMgineer: Vision Language Models as Robotic Toolsmiths
    George Jiayuan Gao*, Tianyu Li*, Junyao Shi , Zizhe Zhang† , Yihan Li†, Nadia Figueroa, and Dinesh Jayaraman
    Oral Spotlight✨ at RSS Workshop on Robot Hardware-Aware Intelligence, 2025
    Under Review, 2025
    arXiv / pdf / Website
  4. ibvs.png
    Image-Based Visual Servoing for Enhanced Cooperation of Dual-Arm Manipulation
    Zizhe Zhang, Yuan Yang, Wenqiang Zuo , Guangming Song, Aiguo Song , and Yang Shi
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2025
    Presented at IROS, 2025
    arXiv / pdf / Website

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, ESE 5000 Linear Systems Theory, University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2025.

Academic Services

Reviwer: TRO, TIE, TII, RAL, ICRA 2026

Volunteer: RSS 2025

Miscellaneous

🎮 Love playing CS2 and Football Manager.

⚽️ Love playing soccer, used to be a player of the varsity soccer team. Huge fan of Leicester City and Inter.