At the Algorithmic Robotics and Control Lab (ARC-L), led by Dr. Jingjin Yu, we are broadly interested in understanding the optimality structures induced by practical problems in robotics/control, and exploiting the gained insight to develop efficient algorithms for tackling these problems with provable guarantees, e.g., on solution optimality. The tools we use/develop include classical combinatorial algorithms and data-driven AI/ML methods. Currently, research at ARC-L explores domains spanning multi-robot path/motion planning, object rearrangement/manipulation, multi-sensor deployment, and sensor fusion.
Dr. Jingjin Yu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University at New Brunswick. He obtained my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois working with Steven M. LaValle. Prior to joining Rutgers, Dr. Yu spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT working with Daniela Rus, with the first year split at Boston University with Mac Schwager. Dr. Yu also stayed briefly at the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Soon-Jo Chung and Petros G. Voulgaris. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).
Dr. Yu is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Amazon Research Award in Robotics. His Erdős number is at its limit of 2.
We always look to work with motivated prospective (undergraduate and graduate) students interested in fundamental and/or applied research in robotics, including volunteers during the summer. If you are interested, please send an email to jingjin.yu at cs.rutgers.edu with your resume/transcripts, and your research interests.
05/2025 - Teng Guo successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Guo!
05/2025 - Baichuan Huang successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Huang!
04/2025 - Marcus Gozon, a previous DIMACS REU hosted by ARCL, will join MIT for his PhD study in theoretical computer science. Congratulations, Marcus, on this great achievement!
03/2025 - Dr. Yu gave an invited talk, “Toward Efficiently and Optimally Solving Long-Horizon Combinatorial Planning Challenges “, at Lehigh University.
02/2025 - Dr. Yu will continue to serve as an RAS Distinguished Lecture for 2025-2027.
01/2025 - Dr. Yu gave an invited talk, “Rubik Tables and O(1)-Opt Multi-Robot Path Planning Solutions in Polynomial Time”, to 𝗜𝗘𝗘𝗘 𝗥𝗔𝗦 𝗦𝗕𝗖 𝗙𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗧.
01/2025 - Four papers accepted by ICRA 2025.
12/2024 - Kai Gao successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. Congratulations, Dr. Gao!
08/2024 - One paper, as a continuation of the earlier AAAI effort, is accepted by WAFR 2024.
08/2024 - Dr. Yu will serve as an editor for ICRA 2025.
07/2024 - One paper accepted by JAIR.
06/2024 - One paper (in collaboration with Prof. Boularias’s group) accepted by IROS 2024.
05/2024 - One paper (led by Prof. Xuebo Zhang’s group at Nankai) accepted by RA-L.
02/2024 - Three papers accepted by ICRA 2024.
12/2023 - One paper accepted by AAAI 2024. The technical work was done mostly by a DIMACS REU, Marcus Gozon, when he was a rising junior.
08/2023 - Dr. Yu will serve as an editor for ICRA 2024.
07/2023 - Dr. Yu gave an invited talk, “Multi-Robot Path Planning on Grids: Computing O(1)-Optimal Solutions in Polynomial Time”, at the University of Science and Technology of China.
06/2023 - Five papers accepted by IROS 2023.
03/2023 - A puzzle game app based on our multi-robot path planning research is now available for iOS and Android.
02/2023 - Dr. Yu gave a keynote talk, “Stack Rearrangement, Rubik Tables, and Multi-Robot Routing”, in the 2023 AAAI Workshop on Multi-Agent Path Finding (online).
02/2023 - An extension to our RSS 2021 paper on the pick-n-swap manipulation primitive is accpted by IJRR. The online version is available at this permanent link.
01/2023 - Four papers accepted by ICRA 2023 (3 ICRA + 1 RA-L).
01/2023 - Dr. Yu will serve as an associated editor for the International Journal of Robotics Research.
If you are looking for old code and/or the microMVP micro-vehicle platform, you may check out our old webpage people.cs.rutgers.edu/~jy512/, no longer updated after 07/2021.