Research teams led by Professors Aiguo Song, Lifeng Zhu, Baoguo Xu, Guangming Song, and Shuguo Pan of the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, have made a series of advances in exoskeletons, continuum robots, robotic perception and navigation, soft robotics, underwater robots, and related fields. Their papers were accepted by the 43rd IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2026), a top international conference in robotics. ICRA, the flagship conference of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, brings together leading research scientists, engineers, and practitioners from academia and industry around the world each year to showcase the latest breakthroughs and frontier developments in robotics and automation.

From June 1 to 5, 2026, ICRA 2026 was held at Messe Wien in Vienna, Austria, under the theme "Robots for All," attracting more than 8,000 scholars and industry participants from 86 countries and regions. The conference received 4,947 valid submissions and accepted 1,882 papers; submissions increased by more than 50% compared with three years ago, and the level of competition continued to rise. In addition, around 1,000 papers from top IEEE journals, including RA-L, T-RO, and T-ASE, were selected for on-site presentation.

Tongshu Chen, a Ph.D. student in Prof. Aiguo Song's research group at the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, attended the conference.

Tongshu Chen, first author of "Design of a Passive Gravity Compensation Mechanism for Wearable Bilateral Lower Limb Exoskeletons," gave an oral presentation at the conference. The study proposes a passive gravity compensation mechanism for wearable lower-limb exoskeletons, using a single spring to jointly compensate the gravitational torques of the bilateral hip and knee joints. By innovatively developing a passive gravity compensation solution for bilateral lower-limb exoskeletons, the work demonstrates promising gravity compensation performance and provides a new design approach for wearable assistive exoskeletons.

Kehong Zhou, Luhao Xie, and Yichen Xiang, Ph.D. students in Prof. Lifeng Zhu's research group at the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, attended the conference.

Kehong Zhou, first author of "A Continuum Robot with Programmable Tendon Routing for Desired Curve Generation," gave a poster presentation at the conference. This study presents a novel tendon-driven continuum robot with pre-programmed tendon routing. Through innovative tendon-path and modular-joint design, it can generate complex non-constant-curvature spatial curves using only a single actuator, a capability difficult for conventional continuum robots to achieve. The work offers a new design approach for enabling complex spatial motion in continuum robots and is expected to advance medical robots, endoluminal robots, and robots for operations in confined spaces.

Luhao Xie, first author of "Curvature-Based Continuous Steering of Stiffness-Dominant Concentric Tube Robots," gave a poster presentation at the conference. Against the background of continuous motion control for concentric tube robots in constrained luminal environments, the study proposes a curvature-based continuous shape steering method for stiffness-dominant concentric tube robots. It provides a new technical approach for safe navigation and precise control of concentric tube robots in narrow and tortuous anatomical channels.

Yichen Xiang, first author of "Tactile Elastography," gave a poster presentation at the conference. This study proposes a three-dimensional tactile elastography method based on high-resolution visuotactile sensors. By actively pressing soft targets with a robot, collecting tactile deformation information, and integrating an inverse finite-element physical model, the method reconstructs the three-dimensional elasticity distribution inside the target. The work opens a new path for robots to perceive hidden mechanical properties through active touch and supports applications such as robot-assisted palpation, intelligent medical diagnosis, and soft-object manipulation.

Zishuo Zhao, a Ph.D. student in Prof. Baoguo Xu's research group at the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, attended the conference.

Zishuo Zhao, first author of "Viscoelasticity-Based Mechanistic Modeling and Control of Bending Pneumatic Muscles," gave a poster presentation at the conference. To address the challenge of effectively modeling the pronounced hysteresis and creep inherent in soft materials when predicting the kinematics of bending pneumatic muscles, this study proposes a viscoelasticity-based mechanistic model and a hybrid feedforward-feedback control system specifically designed for bending pneumatic muscles. The work provides a new approach for precise motion modeling and control of soft pneumatic muscles and is expected to promote advances in soft robotics, bioinspired actuation, and wearable assistive devices.

Fei Wang, a Ph.D. student in Prof. Guangming Song's research group at the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, attended the conference.

Fei Wang, first author of "Robust Admittance Control of an Electric Underwater Manipulator for Precise Motion and Safe Contact Inspection of Hydraulic Structures," gave a poster presentation at the conference. Focusing on underwater inspection and maintenance of hydraulic structures, and addressing the high risks of traditional diver operations as well as the limitation that ROV/AUV platforms often remain at visual inspection and struggle to perform stable contact inspection, the paper designs an electric underwater manipulator system for underwater contact inspection and develops a robust admittance control framework consisting of an inner-loop robust position controller and an outer-loop variable-admittance controller. The system provides a new solution for contact inspection and maintenance of hydraulic structures and verifies its feasibility and reliability in real operation.

Hong Liu and Zhuoxuan Wang, Ph.D. students on Prof. Shuguo Pan's team at the School of Instrument Science and Engineering, Southeast University, attended the conference.

Hong Liu, first author of "Implicit LiDAR SLAM with Confidence-Guided SDF and Normal-Driven Sampling," gave a poster presentation at the conference. To meet the need for high-precision localization and environmental perception by intelligent robots and unmanned systems in complex environments, this study proposes a new implicit LiDAR simultaneous localization and mapping method. The findings provide a new technical route for the development of highly reliable robotic navigation and environmental perception.

Zhuoxuan Wang, first author of "TIPS: Tiered Information-Rich Planning Strategy for Efficient AGV Autonomous Exploration," gave a poster presentation at the conference. To address the low efficiency and incomplete coverage challenges faced by unmanned ground vehicles when autonomously exploring complex environments that include narrow areas, this study proposes a tiered and systematic autonomous exploration planning framework. Simulation and physical experiments show that the method outperforms existing mainstream approaches in algorithm runtime, exploration rate, and map coverage completeness, with particularly strong adaptability in narrow areas.

At ICRA 2026, a total of 10 papers from the School were accepted, spanning multiple frontier directions including continuum robots, concentric tube robots, tactile perception, LiDAR SLAM, autonomous exploration, soft robotics, exoskeletons, and underwater robots. These achievements fully demonstrate the School's comprehensive research strength and international academic influence in robotics and automation.