About

I am a final-year PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Dr. John Dolan. My research in robotics lies at the intersection of control theory, machine learning, and social science. I am broadly interested in areas such as safe control and verification, behavior planning, and human-robot interaction. Specifically, my work focuses on investigating principled methodologies to enable safe robot autonomy within multi-agent systems, facilitating effective collaboration among robots and between robots and humans in uncertain and dynamic environments. I am honored to be the recipient of the 2023-2024 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, and received an honorable mention for the 2024 Jane Street Graduate Research Fellowship. I was also proudly named a 2024 Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) Pioneer and selected as an MIT EECS Rising Star 2024. My research has received best paper awards and nominations at multiple conferences including AAMAS, AAAI, IFAC CPHS and workshops at ICRA, IROS and IJCAI.

I started my PhD journey in fall 2019, after receiving my Bachelor degree in Electronic and Information Engineering from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen). I was advised by Prof. Yangsheng Xu and Prof. Huihuan Qian during my undergraduate study and research.

In my free time, I love being outdoors. Whether it's hiking new trails, traveling to exciting places, or relaxing with some camping and fishing, I’m always up for new adventures and finding peace in nature.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Full-Length Papers

* denotes student mentee co-author

1. Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Ian Gao, Wenhao Luo, "Integrating Online Learning and Connectivity Maintenance for Communication-Aware Multi-Robot Coordination." International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024 [ PDF ]
2. Yanze Zhang, Yiwei Lyu, Sude E. Demir, Xingyu Zhou, Yupeng Yang, Junmin Wang, and Wenhao Luo, "Courteous Driving using CBF-inspired and Ego-perceived Risk Maps." International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, (ITSC), 2024 [ PDF ]
3. Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Yanze Zhang, Sha Yi, Wenhao Luo, "Decentralized Multi-Robot Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance under Uncertainty." Robotics: Science and Systems, (RSS), 2024 [ PDF ]
4. Nate Ludlow*, Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, "Hierarchical Learned Risk-Aware Planning Framework for Human Driving Modeling." International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024 [ PDF ]
5. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, John Dolan, "Risk-based Socially-Compliant Behavior Planning for Autonomous Driving." American Control Conference (ACC), 2024 [ PDF ] (IROS 2023 ERS Workshop Best Paper Award)
6. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, John Dolan, "Risk-aware Safe Control for Decentralized Multi-agent Systems via Dynamic Responsibility Allocation." International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023 [ PDF ] (ICRA 2023 TAS Workshop Best Paper Award)
7. Shuangge Wang*, Yiwei Lyu, John M. Dolan, "Active Probing and Influencing Human Behaviors Via Autonomous Agents." IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023 [ PDF ]
8. Soumith Udatha*, Yiwei Lyu, John M. Dolan, "Reinforcement Learning with Probabilistically Safe Control Barrier Functions for Ramp Merging." IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023 [ PDF ]
9. Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, "Minimally Constrained Multi-Robot Coordination with Line-of-sight Connectivity Maintenance." IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023 [ PDF ]
10. Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, Wenhao Luo, "Decentralized Safe Navigation for Multi-agent Systems via Risk-aware Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells." The 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023 [ PDF ] (Pragnesh Jay Modi Best Student Paper Award Runner-Up)
11. Wenli Xiao*，Yiwei Lyu, John Dolan, "Model-based Dynamic Shielding for Safe and Efficient Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning." The 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS), 2023 [ PDF ]
12. Yiwei Lyu, John M. Dolan, Wenhao Luo, "CBF-Inspired Weighted Buffered Voronoi Cells for Distributed Multi-Agent Collision Avoidance." American Control Conference (ACC), 2023 [ PDF ]
13. Jaskaran Grover, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, Changliu Liu, John Dolan, and Katia Sycara, "Pedestrian Dynamics Inference Using Control Barrier Functions and Mixed-Integer Quadratic Programming." The 4th IFAC Workshop on Cyber-Physical Human Systems (IFAC CPHS), 2022 [ PDF ] (Best Student Paper Finalist)
14. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Responsibility-associated Multi-agent Collision Avoidance with Social Preferences." The 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC), 2022 [ PDF ]
15. Spencer Van Koevering*, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Provable Probabilistic Safety and Feasibility-Assured Control for Autonomous Vehicles using Exponential Control Barrier Functions." IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022 [ PDF ] (~10% Oral Presentation)
16. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Adaptive Safe Merging Control for Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles Using Parametric Control Barrier Functions." IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), 2022 [ PDF ]
17. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Probabilistic Safety-Assured Adaptive Merging Control for Autonomous Vehicles." IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021 [ PDF ] (IJCAI 2021 AI4AD Workshop Best Paper Runner-Up)
18. Yiwei Lyu, Chiyu Dong, and John M. Dolan, "FG-GMM-based Interactive Behavior Estimation for Autonomous Driving Vehicles in Ramp Merging Control." IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020 [ PDF ]
19. Ziran Zhang, Yiwei Lyu, Fahad Raza, and Huihuan Qian, "Design and Control of A Hybrid Sailboat for Enhanced Tacking Maneuver." 13th World Congress on Intelligent Control and Automation (WCICA), 2018 [ PDF ] (Best Student Paper Finalist)

Peer-Reviewed Short Papers

1. Yiwei Lyu, "Interactive Control and Decision-Making for Multi-Robots Systems." The 23rd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS Doctoral Consortium), 2024
2. Yiwei Lyu, "Reliable Interactive Autonomy for Multi-Agent Systems." ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI Pioneer), 2024 [ PDF ]
3. Yupeng Yang, Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, "Minimally Constraining Line-of-Sight Connectivity Maintenance for Collision-free Multi-Robot Networks under Uncertainty." The 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS Extended Abstract), 2023
4. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Risk-aware Decentralized Safe Control via Dynamic Responsibility Allocation." Thirty-Seventh AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Student Abstract), 2023 [ PDF ](Student Abstract Award Finalist)
5. Yiwei Lyu, "Safe Interactive Autonomy for Multi-agent Systems." Thirty-Seventh AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Doctoral Consortium), 2023
6. Yiwei Lyu, Wenhao Luo, and John M. Dolan, "Adaptive Safe Behavior Generation for Heterogeneous Autonomous Vehicles Using Parametric-Control Barrier Functions." Thirty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI Student Abstract), 2022 [ PDF ] [ video ] (Student Abstract Award Finalist)

Selected Honors and Awards