Wenhao Luo

Biography

I am actively looking for self-motivated students at all levels (BS/MS/PhD) with relevant backgrounds. If you are interested in working with me, feel free to reach out!

I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at University of Illinois Chicago. My research interests are at the intersection of robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Specifically, my research focuses on principled methods for robust and interactive autonomy that enable robots to safely and effectively collaborate with each other and with humans in the physical world.

Prior to joining UIC, I served as an Assistant Professor at UNC Charlotte, and completed my PhD in Robotics at Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University in 2021. I also spent two summers in 2019 and 2020 as a research intern at Microsoft Research.

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in robotics, control theory and artificial intelligence. Within robotics, my subdisciplinary interests lie in planning, coordination and learning for autonomous and adaptive robotic systems, such as multi-robot systems and human-robot systems, with emphasis on safety, robustness, trustworthiness and adversaries in the systems.

Teaching

Spring 2025: CS494 Special Topics: Mobile Robotics (Syllabus, Schedule)

Fall 2024: ITCS-4150/5150 Mobile Robotics

Spring 2024: ITCS-6151/8151 Intelligent Robotics

Fall 2023: ITCS-4150 Mobile Robotics

Spring 2023: ITCS-6152/8152 Robot Motion Planning

Fall 2022: ITCS-3153 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Spring 2022: ITCS-6151/8151 Intelligent Robotics

Fall 2021: ITSC-8699 Graduate Research Seminar

Journal Articles

• Collective Conditioned Reflex: A Bio-Inspired Fast Emergency Reaction Mechanism for Designing Safe Multi-Robot Systems
  Zhenting Zhao, Bowei He, Wenhao Luo, and Rui Liu
  Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) with presentation at IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2022
  Paper
  

• A suboptimal and analytical solution to mobile robot trajectory generation amidst moving obstacles
  Jun Peng*, Wenhao Luo*, Weirong Liu, Wentao Yu, and Jing Wang
  (* indicates equal contribution)
  Autonomous Robots (AURO), vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–23, 2015
  Paper
  

Refereed Conference Publications

• Computationally and Sample Efficient Safe Reinforcement Learning Using Adaptive Conformal Prediction
  Hao Zhou, Yanze Zhang, and Wenhao Luo
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
  Paper
  

• Adaptive Deadlock Avoidance for Decentralized Multi-Agent Systems via CBF-inspired Risk Measurement
  Yanze Zhang, Yiwei Lyu, Siwon Jo, Yupeng Yang, and Wenhao Luo
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
  Paper
  

• Integrating Multi-Robot Adaptive Sampling and Informative Path Planning for Spatiotemporal Natural Environment Prediction
  Siva Kailas, Srujan Deolasee, Wenhao Luo, Woojun Kim, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
  PDF Coming Soon
  

• Distributed Multi-robot Source Seeking in Unknown Environments with Unknown Number of Sources
  Lingpeng Chen, Siva Kailas, Srujan Deolasee, Wenhao Luo, Katia Sycara, and Woojun Kim
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2025
  Best Conference Paper Award Finalist & Best Paper Award Finalist on Multi-Robot Systems
  Paper
  

• Integrating Online Learning and Connectivity Maintenance for Communication-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination
  Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Ian Gao, and Wenhao Luo
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024
  Paper Project Page
  

• Courteous MPC for Autonomous Driving with CBF-inspired Risk Assessment
  Yanze Zhang, Yiwei Lyu, Sude Ela Demir, Xingyu Zhou, Yupeng Yang, Junmin Wang, and Wenhao Luo
  The 27th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2024
  Paper
  

• Individualizable Risk Assessment Map for Planning Vehicle Behaviors Respecting Perceived Safety
  Ji Hwan Park, Yanze Zhang, Wenhao Luo, and Junmin Wang
  The 27th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2024
  Paper
  

• A Transitional Intelligent Driver Model Enabling Vehicle Longitudinal Motion Prediction in Lane-Change Maneuvers
  Sude Ela Demir, Xingyu Zhou, Yanze Zhang, Wenhao Luo, and Junmin Wang
  Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference (MECC), 2024
  Paper
  

• Decentralized Multi-Robot Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance under Uncertainty
  Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Sha Yi, and Wenhao Luo
  Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS), 2024
  Paper
  

• Safety-Critical Control with Uncertainty Quantification using Adaptive Conformal Prediction
  Hao Zhou, Yanze Zhang, and Wenhao Luo
  American Control Conference (ACC), 2024
  Paper
  

• Risk-based Socially-Compliant Behavior Planning for Autonomous Driving
  Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
  American Control Conference (ACC), 2024
  CHAI-BERI Paper Award at IROS 2024 Workshop on ERS
  Paper
  

• Risk-aware Safe Control for Decentralized Multi-agent Systems via Dynamic Responsibility Allocation
  Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023
  Best TAS Paper Award at ICRA 2023 Workshop on MACTAS
  Paper
  

• Occlusion-free Image-Based Visual Servoing using Probabilistic Control Barrier Certificates
  Yanze Zhang, Yupeng Yang, and Wenhao Luo
  International Federation of Automatic Control World Congress (IFAC), 2023
  Paper
  

• Minimally Constrained Multi-Robot Coordination with Line-of-sight Connectivity Maintenance
  Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, and Wenhao Luo
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023
  Paper
  

• Decentralized Safe Navigation for Multi-agent Systems via Risk-aware Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells
  Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, and Wenhao Luo
  International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023
  Best Student Paper Runner Up Award
  Paper
  

• Minimally Constraining Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance for Collision-free Multi-Robot Networks under Uncertainty
  Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, and Wenhao Luo
  International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023 (Extended Abstract)
  Paper
  

• Multi-Robot Adaptive Sampling for Supervised Spatiotemporal Forecasting
  Siva Kailas, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  Progress in Artificial Intelligence: 22nd EPIA Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2023
  Paper
  

• CBF-Inspired Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells for Distributed Multi-Agent Collision Avoidance
  Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, and Wenhao Luo
  American Control Conference (ACC), 2023
  Paper
  

• Semantically-Aware Pedestrian Intent Prediction with Barrier Functions and Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming
  Jaskaran Grover, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, Changliu Liu, John Dolan, and Katia Sycara
  The 4th IFAC Workshop on Cyber-Physical Human Systems (CPHS), 2022 (Best Student Paper Finalist)
  Paper
  

• Noncooperative Herding With Control Barrier Functions: Theory and Experiments
  Jaskaran Grover*, Nishant Mohanty*, Changliu Liu, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  (* indicates equal contribution)
  The 61th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 2022
  Paper
  

• Sample-efficient Safe Learning for Online Nonlinear Control with Control Barrier Functions
  Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
  The 15th International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2022
  Paper
  

• Responsibility-associated Multi-agent Collision Avoidance with Social Preferences
  Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
  The 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2022
  Paper
  

• Adaptive Safe Merging Control for Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles using Parametric Control Barrier Functions
  Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
  IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022
  Paper
  

• Provable Probabilistic Safety and Feasibility-Assured Control for Autonomous Vehicles using Exponential Control Barrier Functions
  Spencer Van Koevering, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John Dolan
  IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022 (Oral presentation)   (Selection rate 10%)
  Paper
  

• Meta Preference Learning for Fast User Adaptation in Human-Supervisory Multi-Robot Deployments
  Chao Huang, Wenhao Luo, and Rui Liu
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021
  Paper
  

• Hiding Leader's Identity in Leader-Follower Navigation through Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
  Ankur Deka, Wenhao Luo, Huao Li, Michael Lewis, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2021
  Paper
  

• Probabilistic Safety Assured Adaptive Merging Control for Autonomous Vehicles
  Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
  Best Paper Runner-Up Award at IJCAI 21 Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Autonomous Driving  
  Paper
  

• Online Connectivity-aware Dynamic Deployment for Multi-robot System
  Chendi Lin, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
  Paper
  

• Distributed Topology Correction for Flexible Connectivity Maintenance in Multi-Robot Systems
  Sha Yi, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021
  Paper
  

• Multi-Robot Collision Avoidance under Uncertainty with Probabilistic Safety Barrier Certificates
  Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
  Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), 2020 (Spotlight)   (Selection rate 4.1%)
  Paper Video Code Poster
  

• Minimally Disruptive Connectivity Enhancement for Resilient Multi-Robot Teams
  Wenhao Luo, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
  Paper
  

• Adaptive Informative Sampling with Environment Partitioning for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems
  Yunfei Shi, Ning Wang, Jianmin Zheng, Yang Zhang, Sha Yi, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2020
  Paper
  

• Behavior Mixing with Minimum Global and Subgroup Connectivity Maintenance for Large-Scale Multi-Robot Systems
  Wenhao Luo, Sha Yi, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020
  Paper
  

• Minimum k-Connectivity Maintenance for Robust Multi-Robot Systems
  Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Heuristic-Based Multiple Mobile Depots Route Planning for Recharging Persistent Surveillance Robots
  Yifan Ding, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Voronoi-Based Coverage Control with Connectivity Maintenance for Robotic Sensor Networks
  Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Decentralized Multiple Mobile Depots Route Planning for Replenishing Persistent Surveillance Robots
  Yifan Ding, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Symposium on Multi-Robot and Multi-Agent Systems (MRS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Distributed Environmental Modeling and Adaptive Sampling for Multi-Robot Sensor Coverage
  Wenhao Luo, Changjoo Nam, George Kantor, and Katia Sycara
  International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Active Learning with Gaussian Processes for High Throughput Phenotyping
  Sumit Kumar, Wenhao Luo, George Kantor, and Katia Sycara
  International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Trust-Aware Behavior Reflection for Robot Swarm Self-Healing
  Rui Liu, Fan Jia, Wenhao Luo, Meghan Chandarana, Changjoo Nam, Mike Lewis, and Katia Sycara
  International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2019
  Paper
  

• Adaptive Sampling and Online Learning in Multi-Robot Sensor Coverage with Mixture of Gaussian Processes
  Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2018
  Paper
  

• A Computational Framework for Integrating Task Planning and Norm Aware Reasoning for Social Robots
  Vigneshram Krishnamoorthy, Wenhao Luo, Michael Lewis, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), 2018
  Paper
  

• Decentralized Method for Sub-swarm Deployment and Rejoining
  Meghan Chandarana, Wenhao Luo, Michael Lewis, Katia Sycara, and Sebastian Scherer
  IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 2018
  Paper
  

• Decentralized Coordinated Motion for a Large Team of Robots Preserving Connectivity and Avoiding Collisions
  Anqi Li, Wenhao Luo, Sasanka Nagavalli, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2017
  Paper
  

• Online Decision Making for Stream-based Robotic Sampling via Submodular Optimization
  Wenhao Luo, Changjoo Nam, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems (MFI), 2017
  Paper
  

• Distributed Knowledge Leader Selection for Multi-Robot Environmental Sampling Under Bandwidth Constraints
  Wenhao Luo, Shehzaman S. Khatib, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016
  Paper
  

• Handling State Uncertainty in Distributed Information Leader Selection for Robotic Swarms
  Anqi Li, Wenhao Luo, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC), 2016
  Paper
  

• Distributed Dynamic Priority Assignment and Motion Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints
  Wenhao Luo, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
  American Control Conference (ACC), 2016
  Paper
  

• Asynchronous Distributed Information Leader Selection in Robotic Swarms
  Wenhao Luo, Shehzaman S. Khatib, Sasanka Nagavalli, Nilanjan Chakraborty, and Katia Sycara
  IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2015
  Paper
  

• Optimal Real-time Trajectory Planning for a Fixed Wing Vehicle in 3D Dynamic Environment
  Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, and Jing Wang
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2013
  Paper
  

• An Improved Parameterized Approach for Real Time Optimal Motion Planning of AUV Moving in Dynamic Environment
  Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, and Jing Wang
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), 2013
  Paper
  

• A Unified Optimization Method for Real-Time Trajectory Generation of Mobile Robots with Kinodynamic Constraints in Dynamic Environment
  Wenhao Luo, Jun Peng, Weirong Liu, Jing Wang, and Wentao Yu
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), 2013
  Paper
  

Workshop Articles

• No-Regret Safe Learning for Online Nonlinear Control with Control Barrier Functions
  Wenhao Luo, Wen Sun, and Ashish Kapoor
  Workshop on Safe Robot Control with Learned Motion and Environment Models, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA Workshop), 2021
  Paper Spotlight Talk
  

• Online Connectivity-aware Dynamic Distribution for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Systems
  Chendi Lin, Wenhao Luo, and Katia Sycara
  Workshop on Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Task Allocation and Coordination, Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS Workshop), 2020
  Paper Spotlight Talk
  

• Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems with Probabilistic Safety Barrier Certificates
  Wenhao Luo, and Ashish Kapoor
  Workshop on Safety and Robustness in Decision-making, Thirty-third Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS Workshop), 2019
  Paper Video