Weiran Yao

Professor of Control Science and Engineering

Department of Control Science and Engineering, School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology

Key Laboratory of Autonomous Intelligent Unmanned Systems, MIIT, P. R. China

#92 West Dazhi Street, Nangang District, Harbin 150001, P. R. China


Educational Experience

  • Sep. 2015 – Apr. 2020, Doctor of Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • Oct. 2017 – Jan. 2018, Visiting Ph.D. Student, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
  • Sep. 2013 – Jul. 2015, Master of Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • Sep. 2009 – Jul. 2013, Bachelor of Engineering (with Hons.), Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

Professional Experience

  • Dec. 2024 – present, Full Professor, Department of Control Science and Engineering, School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • Dec. 2022 – present, Doctoral Student Supervisor, Control Science and Engineering Discipline, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • Apr. 2022 – present, Master Student Supervisor, Control Science and Engineering Discipline, Harbin, China
  • Dec. 2021 – Dec. 2024, Associate Professor, Department of Control Science and Engineering, School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
  • Jul. 2020 – Dec. 2021, Assistant Professor, Department of Control Science and Engineering, School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

Academic Honors and Awards

  • 2024 International Conference on Advanced Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICAUAS) Best Paper Award (2024)
  • 2023 IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Systems (ICUS) Best Paper Award (2023)
  • Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Best Paper Award (2022)
  • Young Elite Scientist Sponsorship Program by China Association for Science and Technology (2022)
  • Heilongjiang Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars (2021)
  • Youth Top-notch Talent Program of Harbin Institute of Technology (2021)
  • Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award of Harbin Institute of Technology (2021)
  • Excellent Graduate Award of Harbin Institute of Technology (2020)

Research Interests

  • Autonomous unmanned swarm systems
  • Multi-robot task planning and control
  • Autonomous decision-making of unmanned systems
  • Spacecraft assembly and experimental technology

Academic Activities

  • Associate Editor (2023- ), IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
  • Guest Editor (2024- ), Special Issue “Mission Planning, Perception and Control for Drones in Wide-Area Operations” in Drones (now open for submission: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones/special_issues/MQQD3UL0G1)
  • Guest Editor (2024- ), Special Issue “Robust Sliding Mode Control and State Estimation in Dynamic Systems” in Processes (now open for submission: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/special_issues/R09F4QUGCL)
  • Guest Editor (2022- ), Special Issue “Mobile Robotics and Autonomous Intelligent Systems” in Applied Science (now open for submission: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/mobile_robotic)
  • Guest Editor (2022), Special Issue “Safety and Security of Robotic Systems: Intelligent Algorithms” in Frontiers in Neurorobotics (submission closed: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/44942/safety-and-security-of-robotic-systems-intelligent-algorithms)
  • Youth Editorial Board Member (2024- ), Advances in Astronautics Science and Technology
  • Youth Editorial Board Member (2025- ), Tactical Missile Technology (in Chinese)
  • Youth Editorial Board Member (2023- ), Electronics Optics and Control (in Chinese)
  • Committee Member, Technical Committee on Intelligent Unmanned Systems Modeling and Simulation, China Simulation Federation
  • Committee Member, Technical Committee on Unmanned Systems, Chinese Institute of Command and Control (CICC)
  • Committee Member, Technical Committee on Intelligent Control and System, Chinese Institute of Command and Control (CICC)
  • Liaison, The Eighth Council of Chinese Society of Astronautics
  • Senior Member, Chinese Society of Astronautics
  • Reviewer for more than 40 journals and conferences including INT J ROBOT RES, ACM COMPUT SURV, ACM T IST, AIAA J, EXPERT SYST APPL, IEEE T RO, IEEE T CYBERNETICS, IEEE T CST, IEEE/ASME T MECH, IEEE T AES, IEEE T ASE, IEEE T MC, IEEE T ITS, IEEE IoT J, IEEE RA L, etc.
  • Topical Advisory Panel Member (2023- ), Drones
  • Topical Advisory Panel Member (2023- ), Applied Sciences
  • Session Chair, Special Session “Cooperative Perception, Planning and Control of Wide-area Multi-task Unmanned Systems” in the 2024 7th IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Systems (ICUS 2024)
  • Session Chair, Special Session “Perception, Decision, and Control for Unmanned Aerial Systems in Wide-area Operations” in the 2024 2nd International Conference on Advanced Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICAUAS 2024)
  • Session Chair, Special Session “Inteligent Perception and Control of Multimodal and Multi-task Unmanned Systems” in the 2023 6th IEEE International Conference on Unmanned Systems (ICUS 2023)
  • Session Chair, Special Session “Motion Control and Robust Control for Robotics and Manipulators” in the 2021 IEEE 30th International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE 2021)
  • Technical Committee Member, 2024 International Conference on Advanced Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICAUAS 2024)
  • Technical Committee Member, 2023 2nd International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ICMAT 2023)
  • Technical Committee Member, 2023 International Conference on Advanced Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICAUAS 2023)
  • Technical Committee Member, 2023 3rd International Conference on Control Theory and Applications (ICoCTA 2023)
  • Technical Committee Member, 2022 6th International Conference on Aerospace Technology, Communications and Energy Systems (ATCES 2022)

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